Chris Bosh: Miami Heat Must Not Bank on Star's Return Any Time Soon

The Miami Heat are the one team in the league that can be thankful for the lockout that stalled the season. 

With Chris Bosh out indefinitely—and by indefinitely we mean they'll be lucky to see him on the court this season even if they advance—the Heat are relying solely on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and had they played a full regular season, they'd be mighty tired right now.

But they don't have the luxury of being tired, not even for a single game.

So far in this series, the team that wins the battle of the glass has won each contest. With Bosh out, the Heat have had to rely on James to do the majority of rebounding.

They can't ask for much more from LeBron as they now rely on him to drop dimes, score points and dominate the glass.

What they can do is continue to gameplan in preparation that Bosh won't be coming back at all.

Should the Heat survive this series with the Pacers, they'll have to take on either the veteran-laden Boston Celtics or the youthful Philadelphia 76ers. Either way, they'll have their hands full yet again and they cannot hold out hope for Bosh to return.

Miami needs Bosh's replacements, specifically Udonis Haslem, to continue performing.

Haslem came up huge late in Game 4, and he'll have to keep scoring the basketball if the Heat hope to survive. 

With LeBron already tasked with so much, they need to make up for Bosh's absence in other ways with other players.

That, not Bosh's return, is the key to their success this postseason.