Heat without four key players against Houston but three other players cleared to play
The Miami Heat will be without four key players for Monday’s game against the Houston Rockets.
On the NBA’s final pre-game injury report Monday, the Heat ruled out starting small forward Jimmy Butler (right ankle sprain), starting center Bam Adebayo (right knee soreness), starting guard Victor Oladipo (right knee soreness) and backup guard Tyler Herro (foot soreness) for its 8 p.m. game against the Rockets at AmericanAirlines Arena.
But reserve guards Goran Dragic (back/knee recovery) and Gabe Vincent (knee soreness) and reserve forward Andre Iguodala (left hip soreness) were cleared to play and are available for Monday’s game.
Adebayo will miss Monday’s contest after hitting his first NBA game-winning buzzer beater to lift the Heat to a two-point victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday afternoon. It will mark the seventh game he has missed this season, as he also missed four straight games in March because of left knee tendinitis.
Butler will miss his second game in a row with an ankle injury sustained during a game in Phoenix last week. He played through the injury against Denver and Minnesota last week before it worsened.
Herro will miss his 12th game of the season Monday. He finished Sunday’s win with nine points on 4-of-13 shooting and six assists in 25 minutes.
As for Oladipo, he’s unavailable for the sixth straight game on Monday. He remains out indefinitely because of right knee soreness, but the team has not yet ruled him out for the season.
The Heat is in the middle of a very busy stretch of its schedule. Monday marks Miami’s fifth game in seven days and the fifth of eight games in a 12-day span.
The Rockets ruled out D.J. Augustin, Sterling Brown, Dante Exum, Eric Gordon, Danuel House Jr. and David Nwaba for Monday’s matchup against the Heat.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 2:04 PM.
