MIAMI — Chris Bosh has been telling the Miami Heat that he’s ready to play.

The Heat seem ready to listen.

And tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals — which wouldn’t be lacking for drama with Boston and Miami tied at two games apiece — may have another layer of intrigue.

Bosh’s status was upgraded to “day-to-day” by Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra on Monday, the first deviation by the team after more than three weeks of simply saying his absence was indefinite because of a strained lower abdominal muscle. Spoelstra wouldn’t guarantee that Bosh plays in Game 5, but opened the door to there at least being a chance of the All-Star forward-center suiting up.

“He’ll get a vote,” Spoelstra said of how much Bosh’s input will matter in determining when he takes the floor. “Again, everything is heightened right now. These are extreme circumstances. Everybody will be involved in the decision, if and when it happens. But you always have to take the player’s opinion with a grain of salt. They all say they’re ready. … He said he was ready 10 days ago.”

The Celtics were ready for him then, too.

So if today is the time for Bosh’s comeback, Boston will not be caught off-guard.

“We don’t have to do anything different,” Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said. “We’ve prepared every game like Bosh is going to play. And eventually, he will.”

Bosh was watching from the bench for the two games in Boston, where the Celtics managed to tie the series by following largely the same formula — building a big lead, then holding on at the end.

Of the 101 minutes of game time in Boston, the Heat led for exactly six minutes. The Celtics have led by at least 15 points in each of the last three games, never trailing by more than eight, though managed to win only two of those contests. The addition of Bosh could tilt the scales for the Heat.

Bosh was injured late in the first half of the opening game in the Indiana-Miami second round series on May 13. In the nine postseason games since, Miami has gone 5-4. If he can play, the Heat would welcome whatever Bosh can provide, even if that means working a key player back into the lineup to face Kevin Garnett and Boston’s frontcourt in the midst of a playoff series.

“Chris is obviously very talented and poses his own problems, but I don’t think Kevin is that concerned with whoever’s there,” Rivers said.

Since Bosh arrived with LeBron James to play alongside Dwyane Wade in Miami in July 2010, the Heat have won 72 percent (116-45) of their games with him in the lineup. Without Bosh, Miami has won only 52 percent of the time, going 12-11.

“We couldn’t win without him for two years. And not only could we not win without him, we looked horrible without him,” Spoelstra said. “So I think that was the bigger challenge. If and when we ever get to that point, we’ll gladly take that challenge. He was our most important player for a long period of time.”

 

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