Jimmy Butler again out for Heat on Monday with foot injury. Both Heat and 76ers short-handed
The Miami Heat will again be without star Jimmy Butler for Monday night’s road game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Butler will miss his second straight game with a right foot contusion that he suffered in Friday’s win over the Detroit Pistons when his foot was stepped on.
Butler was initially listed as questionable for Monday’s matchup against the 76ers. But after going through treatment and testing the foot, he was ruled out for the contest and is considered day-to-day.
“He went through everything, all the treatment and protocols,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler during his pregame media session on Monday. “And he just wasn’t ready today. We’ll continue to treat him. He’ll be day to day and his body will let us know.”
The expectation remains that Butler won’t need to miss an extended stretch because of this foot issue. He could make his return as soon as Wednesday against the Cavaliers in Cleveland in the final game of the Heat’s four-game trip.
Monday marks the 21st game that Butler, 34, has missed this season because of various reasons.
Along with missing Butler, the Heat will also be without Nikola Jovic (strained right hamstring), Tyler Herro (right foot medial tendintis), Kevin Love (right heel bruise), Josh Richardson (season-ending right shoulder surgery), Cole Swider (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) against the 76ers.
The 76ers will also be short-handed, as they remain without All-Star center Joel Embiid (left knee meniscus procedure) for Monday’s game against the Heat. The 76ers will also be without Tobias Harris (sprained right ankle), Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise), Kai Jones (right hamstring strain), De’Anthony Melton (back) and Terquavion Smith (G League).
Monday’s game at Wells Fargo Center is critical in the Heat’s efforts to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament, which features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat and 76ers enter the game with the same record at 37-30, but the seventh-place Heat sits ahead of the eighth-place 76ers in the Eastern Conference standings because Miami currently holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Heat carries a 2-0 lead in the four-game regular-season series between the two teams and can clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker over the 76ers with a win on Monday.
