Chris Bosh returns home to Dallas looking to spoil party

Dallas has already made this series uncomfortable for Chris Bosh.

Primarily covered by Tyson Chandler, Bosh has struggled, as Tom Haberstroh detailed at ESPN.

This isn’t just a product of missing midrange jumpers. While he’s shot just 3-for-11 this series on long 2s, the real issue is the chip shots around the basket. Inside 10 feet, he’s shot a putrid 5-for-21 (24 percent), which is an area where he converted 57 percent of his attempts during the regular season.

But while Dallas fans will be all over him, Bosh may be comfortable back in Texas — Bosh is a Dallas native. He will have a lot of family and friends in the crowd for Sunday night’s Game 3.

Dallas needs him to convert some of those chip shots. Chandler’s length and athleticism has had Bosh rushing. Bosh loves the upfake, Chandler simply does not bite. Haberstroh lays out some of the details.

For Bosh to be successful, he must do a better job of drawing contact on Chandler without worrying about getting blocked. Bosh only drew one whistle on Chandler the entire (Game 2) off an offensive move. With a gimpy Haywood as Chandler’s only legitimate backup, Bosh’s aggressiveness against Chandler becomes even more imperative.

The other thing is on the pick-and-roll. At the end of Game 2 Dallas had very good success by trapping LeBron James and Dwyane Wade off the pick, or at least having the Dallas big showing hard. Bosh will set a lot of those picks and Dallas needs him to pop out and hit the midrange, or roll hard and finish at the rim — essentially, Bosh has to make them pay for those hard shows by big men.

Defensively, well, Miami will not be isolating Bosh on Dirk Nowitzki in key situations again. That was not great defense by Bosh, but he got no help and that was the bigger issue.

If Bosh can find his comfort zone in Dallas, Miami will as well. If not, it may come down to how well LeBron and Wade can do in more isolated attacks on the Mavs. And that plays right into Dallas’ hands.