With Dwyane Wade sidelined and with Udonis Haslem out of the rotation, Chris Bosh had spent recent weeks filling the leadership void in the absence of the Miami Heat's co-captains.
But with a nine-day All-Star break, Bosh turned introspective and acknowledged he has to bring more when the schedule resumes.
Heat hope to make playoff charge after All-Star break
"I need a break," he said, with the Heat's schedule not to resume until a Feb. 20 game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks. "That's it, man. It's been tough. And everybody knows that. But it's a part of basketball, it's a part of business and I want a break.
"We've earned it, and come back refreshed hopefully and see what we can do for these last 30 games, try to make a move."
Bosh appreciates he has to be part of that move. Wednesday's 5-of-17 shooting and two rebounds in a 113-93 road loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers was just the latest uneven effort delivered by the Heat's lone representative in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, with Wade resting his balky right hamstring.
Bosh has now shot below 40 percent in five of the past eight games.
"It's not getting shots in spots I want," he said. "I'll continue to play no matter what happens. I know that shooting percentage will go up. And getting Dwyane back, that'll help me out a lot."
Then there is Bosh's rebounding. He has had three or fewer in three of the past five games.
Part of that has been the vacuum-like rebounding of emerging center Hassan Whiteside. Part of it has been a lack of needed aggression.
"I'll start doing more on the boards," he said. "If I have to, I'll start fighting Hassan for 'em, too, because that's about two or three a game that I miss now on.
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"It's been a struggle. It's been a struggle. I'm just making sure I'm keeping my head and move forward no matter what happens."
The emergence of Whiteside has left Bosh re-cast yet again, this time playing almost exclusively as a power forward.
"It's an adjustment," he said. "I'm still getting used to how teams are reacting to me. That's a daily battle. That's something I'm not used to and it takes a whole season to get used to that.
"I'm trying to put myself in a position where I'm thinking ahead of other defenses. And they're really loading up on me and making it tough on me, and if I'm not hitting easy ones . . . it makes it tougher."
Bosh said he would use the time off to re-recalibrate.
"I think over the All-Star break I'll just put that in my mind and see what I can do to put myself and the team in better positions to be effective," he said.
Bosh said among the reasons the Heat enter the All-Star break at 22-30 is a lack of focus throughout the roster.Even at this late stage, Bosh said continuity remains an ongoing battle, with Wade having missed the past seven games.
"It's still a difficult situation to be in," he said. "We want to win basketball games and it still seems like we're still trying to build things, and we still don't have our big gun in there. We're still trying to find continuity in everything.
"So we're still searching. But we just got to keep playing. And the more we keep playing, the more we can figure it out eventually."
No, this is not the type of record Bosh wanted to take into his appearances at All-Star Weekend.
"We can't do anything to change it but move forward," he said. "We can utilize this break to kind of get away, reset, focus on these 30 games that we're going to have.
"We have a chance to move up or move down. So in this 30-game sprint we're going to have to play better, consistent defense and consistent offense. I think overall consistency is something we can improve on."