After All-Star break, Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Avery Bradley still out Thursday vs. Magic
Even after the weeklong All-Star break, the Miami Heat’s injury report still includes starting center Bam Adebayo and veteran guard Avery Bradley.
Adebayo (left knee tendinitis) and Bradley (right calf strain) have been ruled out for the Heat’s first game back from the break on Thursday against the Orlando Magic (8 p.m., Fox Sports Sun) at AmericanAirlines Arena. Both Adebayo and Bradley, along with center Meyers Leonard, also missed the Heat’s final game before the break — a March 4 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Meanwhile, Leonard is away from the team indefinitely after a video surfaced of the 7-footer using an anti-Semitic slur while playing a video game on the Twitch livestreaming platform. But the Heat continues to list Leonard as out on the injury report due to season-ending shoulder surgery.
With the Heat opening the second half of the season with a back-to-back set that ends Friday night against the Chicago Bulls at United Center, Adebayo and Bradley could be forced to miss Friday’s game, too. Miami begins its post-break schedule with five games in seven days.
For Adebayo, this is one of the rare times that he has been forced to miss time because of an injury.
Thursday will mark just the second time that Adebayo has missed a regular-season game because of a legitimate injury since his rookie season in 2017-18. The first one came last week when he missed his first game because of knee tendinitis.
Adebayo played every regular-season game in 2018-19, missed the regular-season finale last season as a precaution with the start of the playoffs just days away, and had missed just two games this season because of contact tracing related to the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols before he was sidelined by knee tendinitis.
Adebayo, 23, is averaging 19.2 points on 56.3 percent shooting, 9.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 33 games (33 starts) this season.
Without Adebayo in last week’s win over the Pelicans to close the first half of the regular season, second-year forward KZ Okpala started in place of Adebayo alongside Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler and Kelly Olynyk.
For Bradley, it has been hard for him to stay on the court this season.
Bradley, who last appeared in a game on Feb. 3, will miss his 16th consecutive game Thursday because of the calf strain. Doctors told Bradley he could return in three to four weeks at the time of the injury, and it has been about five weeks.
Bradley, who signed with the Heat as a free agent this past offseason, has played in just 10 games this season. Along with missing this extended stretch because of a calf injury, he also missed eight games in a row in January after testing positive for COVID-19.
In the games that Bradley has played in this season, he has been a consistent part of the Heat’s bench rotation. Bradley, 30, has averaged 8.5 points while shooting 47 percent from the field and 42.1 percent on threes, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.1 minutes in his 10 appearances (one start) this season.
Two-way contract guard Gabe Vincent is the only other Heat player on the injury report for Thursday’s matchup against the Magic. Vincent is listed as probable with right knee soreness.
The Magic will also be short-handed, with Cole Anthony (right rib fracture), James Ennis III (sore left calf), Evan Fournier (strained left groin), Markelle Fultz (torn ACL) and Jonathan Isaac (left knee recovery) all ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Heat. Aaron Gordon (sprained left ankle) is questionable.
ALDRIDGE AVAILABLE
The San Antonio Spurs and veteran power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge mutually agreed that he will not return to the team, coach Gregg Popovich announced Wednesday night.
According to ESPN, the Spurs “are engaged on several fronts with potential trades for Aldridge and believe they can find a deal — perhaps even in the next week — and avoid the need to negotiate a contract buyout.”
Heat president Pat Riley has always respected Aldridge, and the two even met when Aldridge was a free agent in 2015 despite the Heat not having the necessary cap space to sign him at that point. Aldridge ended up signing with the Spurs.
Aldridge, 35, is on a $24 million salary in the final season of his contract.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 5:36 PM.
