Did Spoelstra make the right call yesterday?

Most of the talk after yesterday's Eastern Conference Finals Game 5 has been about whether Miami Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra made the right call by only playing Chris Bosh only 14 minutes in the 94-90 Heat loss against the Boston Celtics. While all this talk doesn't give enough credit to what the Celtics did to get the win, and even though Spoelstra's comments about being "fair" were the worst choice of words since "I did not have relations ... with that woman", I still think that Coach Spoelstra made the right call.

So, why?

• Bosh undoubtedly did a great job scoring while he was on the floor: 9 points and 7 rebounds in 14 minutes is a great effort by any player, let alone someone coming back from what can be such a nagging injury
• However, his +/-was -12, which means something wasn't going right while he was on the floor. I think the fact that this Heat group hasn't played together in 3 weeks is a clear disadvantage of them being ready to function as a team. This is especially important versus such a well-oiled machine like the Boston Celtics. (I also really don't understand why most of the sports talk-ers are leaving this out of the discussion!)
• I think part of the reason is that Bosh wasn't being aggressive enough. Since he is touted as the main big man that can match up against Garnett, the fact that he only had 1 foul in the minutes he played tells me he wasn't trying to stop KG hard enough. I get why, I'd be nervous too, but another reason why he may not have been as effective in the last quarter as people are making out.
• As important as this game was (and YES, very important, and I'm VERY happy that the Celtics won), it wasn't an elimination game and I do think Spoelstra needed to take a bit of a longer-term view. Abdominal injuries are some of the toughest to treat and easiest to re-tweak, and if Bosh had gone down, imagine all the hate that would be spewing today
• And yes, OF COURSE Bosh thought he could play more, but he is an athlete. That is what they do. Remember when Pedro didn't want to come out in the 2003 ALCS and Grady listened to him? Yeah. That happened. Making his own decision is Spoelstra's job.

Now, all that being said, Spoelstra has a ton of pressure to get Bosh ready, aggressive and on the court for extended minutes in Game 6. And, before that, to get his team practicing and running plays together. Because, if the Heat lose this series, on top of everything else, that decision and one sentence on Bosh could mean real trouble ...

Photo credit: www.heat.com