Tyler Johnson returns to Miami Heat lineup after shoulder injury

Tyler Johnson, one of the Heat’s five southpaws, has an explanation for the chronic soreness in his left shoulder, dating back to his days at Fresno State.

“I shoot a lot,” he said.

Actually, some wish the Heat backup point guard would shoot more, considering that he entered Wednesday’s game with the team’s top three-point percentage.

Still, at least he was on the floor again, after missing the past three contests after the issue became acute, and he could hardly lift his arm. Johnson kept trying to convince coach Erik Spoelstra to let him play, and Spoelstra finally relented after Johnson got through Wednesday’s shootaround without any trouble.

“It’s just something that you've just got to rest,” Johnson said. “There are things you can do for it, but right now it’s just rest, and rehab, so I can use different muscles.”

He attributed the problem, at least in part, to overemphasizing his chest muscles when he lifted in college, causing his shoulders to hunch. So he has been trying to get his body more upright to take pressure off the joints.

WHITESIDE RUMORS

Heat officials firmly denied a report that Miami is shopping Hassan Whiteside in an effort to acquire Kings center DeMarcus Cousins or Rockets center Dwight Howard.

And although there have been cases during Pat Riley’s 21-year tenure that the team denied talks, and then a deal was consummated, this time it has good reason for citing a report as implausible.

Specifically, it relates to Whiteside’s contract, which is virtually worthless to an acquiring team, unless that team is trying to make a title run with him this season.

He’s making just $981,348 this season, meaning that Miami would need to include several other contracts just to get anywhere near the necessary salary for Howard ($22.8 million) or Cousins ($15.8 million).

And, as is the predicament for the Heat now, any team acquiring Whiteside would not have his “Bird Rights,” meaning that it would need to use salary cap space to re-sign him. Even if a team had such space, it would have no financial advantage over any other team in the league when Whiteside becomes a free agent this summer. So he would likely be a rental, not worth exchanging a key asset.

WEB JUSTISE

Sometimes, you need to put your money where your clicks are.

That’s what rookie Justise Winslow did after he tweeted the he might need to give Wikipedia a donation because he “wouldn’t have gotten thru high school without it.” Definitely not Duke #loyalty.

That tweet got much more attention than Winslow expected, even spotlighted on some of ESPN’s programming. He said he’d simply woken up early on an off day and was looking up information on a music band. That inspired the tweet.

“I don’t know why people think I used it as, like, a source,” Winslow said, smiling. “You Google something, that’s the first thing that comes up.”

Either way, it worked out for Wikipedia.

Winslow gave $100.

“Hopefully, my tweet made them more money.”

▪ Goran Dragic, whose false front tooth was chipped by an Al Horford elbow in Atlanta, scheduled dental work for his return to Miami. He also might get a visit from the tooth mouse, which is a Slovenian tradition. “It’s the same as the tooth fairy,” Dragic said.

▪ During his return to New York, Amar’e Stoudemire appeared in the Bronx for the opening of the 1,000th Live, Learn and Play center.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Tyler Johnson returns to Miami Heat lineup after shoulder injury."