As Heat looks to make up ground, some playing through pain: ‘You got to be smart about it’
For as many Miami Heat players who have missed games because of injuries this season, there are also some on the roster who continue to play through different bumps and bruises.
It’s a delicate balance: Players want to be available as the Heat looks to make up ground in the standings after an up-and-down start to the season but also know ignoring and pushing through injuries could be more damaging in the long run. Each situation is different and requires daily conversations between the team and player.
“It takes constant communication with the player and the training room because we don’t want to have guys take steps back,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Friday night’s matchup against the Phoenix Suns that marks the end of a five-game West Coast trip. “And you get a sense of urgency like, ‘Hey, we want to get everybody out there right now.’ We have to be responsible with these decisions and we’ve proven that we can get better and we can get closer to an identity that gives us a better chance to win every single night regardless of who’s in and who’s out.”
Heat starting forward Caleb Martin has been at the center of those discussions the past few weeks, as he missed two games in mid-December with a sprained left ankle and returned at less than 100 percent only to play three games and then miss another two games because of a left quadriceps strain. Martin returned from the quadriceps strain to play in both of the Heat’s games in Los Angeles this week, but he’s still clearly feeling the effects of the injury as he missed Friday’s game against the Suns because of the quadriceps issue.
“It’s tough, man,” Martin said earlier this week. “I usually don’t make the best decisions when the decision is left up to me. But that’s part of like being more mature, try to be more professional is knowing when and when not to go.”
Just like the team has to find that balance, so does the player.
“The balance changes all the time,” Martin added. “I feel like that line changes all the time. It just depends on the importance of the game, but also you try to listen to your body too to kind of understand and make sure you don’t put yourself in position to prolong an injury. So we do have a great medical staff that puts us in position and kind of gives us advice of when to go and when not to. But ultimately we’re competitors, so we’re going to decide kind of on our own.”
Spoelstra said the Heat has “had to take that decision out of [Martin’s] hands” at times to save him from himself.
“I just love his competitive spirit,” Spoelstra said. “I know how badly he wants to be out there. We also have to be responsible and he knows that he’s a really important piece to what we’re trying to do. So we have to manage all of these different things seemingly daily.”
Heat guard Tyler Herro missed eight consecutive games in November because of a sprained left ankle. But he had played in 21 straight games entering Friday’s contest in Phoenix despite sustaining a partially torn ligament in his left thumb a little more than a month ago in a game against the Celtics in Boston.
Herro has been playing with a wrap and padding on the thumb to protect it ever since and it hasn’t appeared to affect his play. He entered Friday averaging 23.3 points while shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 42.6 percent from three-point range, 5.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game since Dec. 1.
Herro said the injury is “healed now,” but there were some questions whether he would be able to play through it right after it happened.
“I was able to play through it with the pad and the tape,” Herro said. “It hasn’t gotten worse, so that’s a good thing.”
However, Herro did not play on Friday against the Suns because of back spasms.
Heat forward Duncan Robinson is another player who has been battling through an injury, as he tore a ligament in the middle finger on his right hand during shootaround ahead of a Nov. 18 road game against the Washington Wizards. He went on to play nearly two months before undergoing surgery on the finger Wednesday that will keep him out for at least the next four weeks.
Heat center Dewayne Dedmon is dealing with a lingering case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot that had his availability in question for most of the season. He missed six straight games because of a combination of plantar fasciitis and COVID-19 protocols before returning to play in Wednesday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
And then there’s Heat star Jimmy Butler, who missed seven straight games in November because of right knee soreness and has yet to play in both games of a back-to-back since then as the team tries to manage the ongoing issue. Butler said this week that he’s not yet “fully healthy” despite being available to play.
“You got to be smart about it,” Herro said. “Obviously, it’s important we win games. But it’s a long season and the quicker we get everyone healthy, the better we’ll be. So we can’t have guys fight through injuries every single week. We got to get guys healthy and then we’ll go from there.”
Robinson is one of six Heat players who have been ruled out for Friday’s game in Phoenix, along with Jamal Cain (G League), Herro, Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Martin and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery).
The Heat entered Friday with the second-most missed games in the NBA (151 missed games) this season due to injury, according to Spotrac.
“As long as everybody is present and everybody is pouring into the team, even if you’re not playing,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had some great instances this year with Gabe [Vincent], Kyle [Lowry], Bam [Adebayo], Jimmy when they have not been playing, where they have moved the needle to help us with with their communication or leadership or guidance during the course of the game or just infusing confidence in the group that’s out there.
“That’s what the connectivity of being a real team can look like and you can’t put an analytic to it. Everybody is searching for it, driving for it. You have to be intentional of trying to develop it and you hope that magic happens. I see flickers of it.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 12:38 PM.
