Heat’s Kyle Lowry out for Game 4 with hamstring strain: ‘You have to be smart about it’
The Miami Heat will be without starting point guard Kyle Lowry in Game 4 of its first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks.
Lowry, 36, has been ruled out of Sunday night’s game at State Farm Arena because of a strained left hamstring he suffered in the third quarter of the Heat’s Game 3 loss on Friday. The Heat holds a 2-1 series lead.
“You have to be smart about it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday ahead of Game 4. “The training staff determined that he wasn’t going to play tonight. We have everybody else available and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”
Guard Gabe Vincent will start in Lowry’s place on Sunday. Vincent, 25, made 27 starts in the regular season and most of them came in games that Lowry missed.
“Gabe has been able to plug in and stabilize and also give us some really good two-way basketball,” Spoelstra said. “We have full confidence that he’ll be able to fill in that gap and that position in a different way.”
Lowry’s status for the rest of the Heat’s first-round series is up in the air. He did not participate in the Heat’s practice on Saturday and has now been ruled out for Game 4, with Game 5 scheduled for Tuesday at FTX Arena.
When asked whether Lowry could play in Game 5, Spoelstra said he did not have any information regarding his status for the rest of the series. There had been no MRI on Lowry’s injured hamstring, as of Sunday night.
Walking around gingerly in a sweatsuit as the Heat went through practice Saturday, Lowry said he has been going through treatment on his injured hamstring “pretty much all day” and the plan is to “see how I feel day by day.” Lowry was listed as questionable on the injury report before being ruled out 90 minutes before tipoff.
Lowry has been pushing to play through the pain and is hopeful he’ll be able to return in the coming days.
“You know Kyle,” Spoelstra said with a grin when asked if Lowry tried to play Sunday.
Sunday marks only the second game Lowry has missed because of an injury in his first season with the Heat. The other 18 games he sat out this season came either because of COVID-19 protocols, personal reasons or rest purposes.
The Heat posted a 12-7 record in games without Lowry in the regular season.
Lowry is the only Heat player unavailable on Sunday. The others on Miami’s injury report — Bam Adebayo (left quadriceps contusion), Caleb Martin (left ankle sprain), P.J. Tucker (right calf strain) and Vincent (right big toe contusion) — are available to play in Game 4.
For the Hawks, starting center Clint Capela will make his return in Game 4 after missing the first three games of the series because of a hyperextended right knee. But Atlanta remains without Lou Williams because of a back injury.
This story was originally published April 24, 2022 at 5:32 PM.
