Chris Bosh Ruled Out for 2016 Playoffs Due to Blood Clot
For the second year in a row, a blood clot has prematurely ended Chris Bosh's season. On Friday, the Associated Press' Tim Reynolds reported the Miami Heat star will miss the 2016 NBA playoffs because of the issue.
"Chris talked today to us, as a team," Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade said after practice Friday, per Reynolds. "The biggest message is someone who lived for this moment, someone who envisioned these moments especially after last year, he doesn't have the ability to be in it."
In February 2015, Bosh returned home from a vacation in Haiti over All-Star Weekend and was admitted to a Miami-area hospital. Doctors then discovered a blood clot that had moved up to one of Bosh's lungs, and he was subsequently shut down for the remainder of the season.
On Feb. 16, 2016, Reynolds reported the problem had returned; however, on Feb. 19, the Palm Beach Post's Jason Lieser reported the extent of the clotting and the next steps for both Bosh and the Heat remained unknown.
Writing for Bleacher Report, Dr. David Chao, a sports medicine orthopedist with experience in the NBA, explained how anticoagulants, the most common treatment for clotting, would present a major problem for Bosh if he continued playing this year: "If Bosh were to suffer a significant injury that involves bleeding, the effects of any blood thinners would be difficult to reverse quickly."
Chao added that Bosh can keep playing in the NBA in the future while taking low-level blood thinners—under steady monitoring from team doctors.
"It's really tough for him," Heat guard Goran Dragic said, per Reynolds. "He wants to be part of this on the court, and it's really hard to watch and not to do nothing. It's a tough situation for him, but we need him—even if he's not going to play, his ability to talk to the players, show what you're doing wrong, how you're supposed to do it on the floor, it's big time."
In 53 games, Bosh averaged 19.1 points per contest, which was two points lower than his 2014-15 average. He shot slightly better from the field (46.7 percent), though, and his true shooting percentage climbed from 54.8 percent last year to 57.1 percent in 2015-16, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Udonis Haslem and Josh McRoberts will likely see more time at the 4 in place of Bosh—the latter more so than the former. Head coach Erik Spoelstra has also started using Justise Winslow more often at power forward and will do so more now that Bosh won't return.
A showdown with the sixth-seeded Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the Eastern Conference won't be easy without Bosh, but Miami has veteran depth with Wade, Dragic, Luol Deng and McRoberts to help pave the way while youngsters such as Winslow and Hassan Whiteside look to erupt on the postseason stage.
