Heat’s Jimmy Butler to miss his first game of the season on Sunday vs. Timberwolves
The Miami Heat is about to face life without Jimmy Butler for the first time this season.
Butler has been ruled out for Sunday’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network — Sun) after spraining his right ankle early in Friday’s road loss to the Denver Nuggets. It marks the first game that he has missed this season.
With the Heat’s contest against the Timberwolves marking the third game of a six-game trip, Butler’s status for the rest of the trip is also in question. But Butler will stay on the road with the Heat (3-5) instead of returning to Miami.
Following Sunday’s game against the Timberwolves, the Heat’s trip wraps up with matchups against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday and back-to-back games against the Indiana Pacers on Friday and Nov. 17.
“We’ve been down this road before, so it’s next man up,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said following Friday’s loss to the Nuggets when asked about playing without Butler. “And from there, we just figure out how we can piece it together and figure it out.”
Butler turned his right ankle early in Friday’s defeat while trying to dribble into the paint and then coming to an abrupt stop near the foul line. He immediately fell to the court and winced in pain before exiting the contest with 5:16 left in the first quarter and never returning.
While Butler has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Timberwolves, Heat backup center Kevin Love is off the injury report and is expected to make his season debut in Minneapolis. Love missed the first five games of the season because of personal reasons and sat out the last three games as he worked his way back into game shape.
The Heat could also get second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. back on Sunday. Jaquez, who has missed the last three games because of a stomach illness, is listed as questionable for the Heat’s matchup against the Timberwolves due to “return to competition reconditioning.”
Keshad Johnson (G League) and Josh Christopher (G League) remain out for the Heat on Sunday.
Butler, 35, entered this season hoping to be available for more games after missing 20 or more regular-season games in three of the last four seasons. Heat president Pat Riley also challenged Butler this past offseason to be available for more games.
Butler, who can become a free agent this upcoming summer with a $52.4 million player option in his contract for next season, played in each of the Heat’s first eight games this regular season before leaving Friday’s contest early. Now, he’ll miss the Heat’s ninth of the game of the season and possibly a few more.
For perspective, Butler was forced to miss two straight games last season after spraining his right ankle. Butler sat out a total of 22 games because of injuries and other issues last season, with the Heat posting a 13-9 record in those games.
Butler has averaged 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 47.8 percent from the field and 2 of 13 (15.4 percent) from three-point range through the Heat’s first eight games (eight starts) this season.
Among the options to replace Butler in the starting lineup while he’s out are Jaquez, Pelle Larsson, Alec Burks, Haywood Highsmith, Josh Richardson and Duncan Robinson.
This story was originally published November 9, 2024 at 4:57 PM.
