With Jimmy Butler set to miss second straight game, Heat continues to push through injury issues
Coach Erik Spoelstra always believes the Miami Heat has enough to win a game. It doesn’t matter who’s available and who’s not available, Spoelstra doesn’t leave room for his team to lean on excuses.
That has been a valuable and effective approach this season, as the Heat stands at 16-12 despite entering Thursday with the fourth-most missed games in the NBA this season due to injury at 89 games, according to Spotrac’s injury tracker. Among the six teams in the league that entered Thursday with more than 80 missed games, the Heat and Los Angeles Lakers are the only ones that hold a winning record.
The only three teams with more missed games this season than the Heat are the struggling Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons.
“We do feel like we have great depth,” Spoelstra said. “We have great continuity, so I’m not as concerned when we’ve had to deal with guys missing games. It’s more about developing the consistency to our identity, which we know. We have the continuity. It’s about whoever is out there, we know what we need to try to do. We just need to do it more consistently.”
The Heat did it more consistently in Wednesday night’s 115-106 road win over the improved Orlando Magic despite not having starter Jimmy Butler (strained left calf) and backup center Kevin Love (stomach illness). Seven Heat players finished the victory with double-digit points led by Tyler Herro, who finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
It went down as another short-handed win for the Heat, which has had its entire leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Butler and Herro available for just seven of the first 28 games. The Heat is 4-3 this season with Adebayo, Butler and Herro all available and 12-9 when at least one of them is missing.
Adebayo has already missed 10 games this season because of a left hip contusion, including seven straight games before returning to play in Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves
Butler has sat out five games this season — one because of rest, one because of personal reasons, two because of a sprained right ankle and one because of a strained left calf in Wednesday’s win over the Magic.
Herro missed 18 straight games this season with a sprained right ankle before returning to play in Monday’s loss to the Timberwolves.
“We have ups and downs throughout the season and we had them last year,” Adebayo said, with the Heat back in Miami to open a two-game homestand on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “So a lot of guys who have been through what we been through last year know there are always brighter days and you always have an opportunity to get wins. I feel like we have a team, even though we’re down in guys, we can still get Ws.”
The Heat will again play without Butler on Friday against the Hawks, as he’ll miss his second straight game because of a calf injury. Miami will also be without RJ Hampton (G League), Nikola Jovic (G League), Dru Smith (season-ending knee injury) and Cole Swider (G League), but Love is expected back after missing Wednesday’s win with a stomach illness.
All of the injuries have forced the Heat to use a league-leading 16 different starting lineups in the first 28 games of the season.
The Heat reached 16 when it threw out another different starting unit in Wednesday’s win over the Magic, opening with a lineup of Kyle Lowry, Herro, Robinson, Caleb Martin and Adebayo.
But it was the Heat’s bench that proved to be one of the biggest differences in the game, as the four-man bench rotation of Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson, Thomas Bryant and Haywood Highsmith all produced positive minutes. Richardson closed with a plus/minus of plus 7, Robinson finished as a plus 16, Bryant was a team-best plus 20 and Highsmith was a plus 6 in Wednesday’s victory.
“I thought that was just as big of a factor and that’s what I mentioned in the locker room that our bench really drove us to this win,” Spoelstra said. “They finished the second quarter and finished the game, for the most part. Tyler and Bam anchored it, but we had some great production.
“Thomas was a plus-20. Obviously, H (Highsmith) was really good defensively and then knocked down threes. So that makes everybody else notice out there. But he did a lot of other intangible things to contribute to winning. And J-Rich and Duncan were both so rock solid in this game. We don’t win this game without that production from those guys.”
This is nothing new for the Heat, which also dealt with constant injury issues last season on its way to advancing to the playoffs through the play-in tournament and eventually becoming just the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals before losing to the Denver Nuggets in the championship series.
But when asked about the Heat’s ability to overcome injuries over the last few seasons, Spoelstra downplayed that story line.
“We have great continuity,” Spoelstra said following Wednesday’s win in Orlando. “Some of that stuff, we’ve talked about missed games and all that. You take, I don’t even want to talk about it. But take out [Omer] Yurtseven and a little bit of [Victor Oladipo’s] last year, we’re not up there ranking the way people think we’re ranking in missed games. We have more continuity than probably a lot of teams. And I feel very good about that.”
At some point, though, the Heat’s three best players — Adebayo, Butler and Herro — will need to play a string of games together this season to build their own continuity. Adebayo and Herro have taken on bigger offensive roles and that has added some kinks to work through when the trio is on the court.
The Heat also has been closer to mediocre than dominant this season despite the winning record, reaching Thursday with the NBA’s 14th-ranked offensive rating, 14th-ranked defensive rating and 13th-ranked net rating this season in the 30-team league.
For now, though, the Heat will just keep trying to win games regardless of who’s available. Spoelstra always believes the Heat has enough and his players have proven him right more often than not this season.
“I feel very good about our depth, I feel very good that different players are able to step up and contribute to winning on different nights,” Spoelstra said. “You need that in this league. It doesn’t have to be what everybody thinks it has to be. The traditional whatever. It doesn’t have to be. You need depth and you need guys that feel like they can contribute and add to the winning.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 10:29 AM.
