Spoelstra ‘encouraged’ by Lowry’s progress, but there’s still no timetable for Lowry’s return
The Miami Heat will continue to play without point guard Kyle Lowry for at least one more game and possibly beyond.
After being upgraded to questionable Sunday afternoon for the first time since he went out more than three weeks ago because of left knee soreness, Lowry was downgraded to out on Monday morning. He will miss his ninth game in a row when the Heat takes on the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Lowry rejoined the Heat in his hometown of Philadelphia on Sunday after not traveling with the team for the first two games of the three-game trip, but the team ultimately ruled that he was not quite ready to play.
“I didn’t need that. I didn’t even see that he got upgraded,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Monday’s morning shootaround when asked if it was an encouraging sign that Lowry was upgraded to questionable on the injury report for a few hours. “That’s more training staff and league-related just to cover yourself. I’m more encouraged just by the work he has been able to do the last 10 days. He’s definitely making progress. I don’t have a timetable for his return. But he’s certainly doing a lot more.”
Lowry’s return could come as soon as in Wednesday’s rematch against the 76ers in Miami, but there remains uncertainty surrounding his return date and his absence could even push past Wednesday’s game. The Heat and Lowry are taking a cautious approach with the lingering soreness in his left knee.
According to multiple league sources, Lowry did not suffer a setback in his recovery.
Lowry, 36, has battled through left knee pain for the last few months. He missed two games because of left knee soreness in December and four games because of left knee discomfort in January before this current nine-game absence because of left knee soreness. The injury has required ongoing treatment.
Lowry has not played in a game since Feb. 2 and was at the center of trade speculation ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
The Heat was open to dealing Lowry, but a trade ultimately never materialized. While Lowry’s future with the Heat was in question during the days leading up to the deadline, the two sides have spent the weeks following the deadline finding a path forward and making sure the knee gets back to as close to 100 percent as possible.
It has been a struggle for Lowry this season. He has averaged 12 points and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range this season while playing in more of an off-ball, floor-spacing role than he has been accustomed to in his NBA career.
The last time Lowry averaged fewer than 13 points per game in a season was in his first year with the Toronto Raptors in 2012-13, the last time he shot worse than 41 percent from the field in a season was also in 2012-13, the last time he shot 34 percent or worse on threes in a season came in 2014-15 with the Raptors, and the last time he averaged fewer than six assists in a season came in 2009-10 with the Houston Rockets.
Lowry has also recorded a usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) of 16.6 percent this season, which would be his lowest single-season usage rate since his rookie campaign in 2006-07 when he played in just 10 games with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Lowry has started in each of his 44 appearances this season and has not played off the bench since the 2012-13 season with the Raptors. It remains to be seen if Lowry will resume being the Heat’s starting point guard when he returns, or whether Spoelstra continues starting Gabe Vincent.
The Heat has posted a 3-5 record in games Lowry has missed during this stretch.
“We miss his voice, we miss his leadership,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of Lowry. “He’s one of those guys who’s always pointing stuff out in the middle of the game with the iPad. So for me, just having him around helps all of us because he sees certain stuff that probably a lot of people don’t see.”
▪ Along with missing Lowry, the Heat will also be without Jamal Cain (G League), Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) on Monday against the 76ers. The Heat sent Cain back to play for its G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, as part of his two-way contract.
This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 12:31 PM.
