Adebayo, Wiggins, Irving, Davis among those out for battle of depleted teams between Heat and Mavs
The stomach bug continues to spread through the Miami Heat’s locker room. The latest victim is Heat newcomer Andrew Wiggins.
Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier already missed games for the Heat earlier this week because of a stomach illness. Now, Wiggins is the latest to fall ill.
After Wiggins logged 34 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in his second game with the Heat following last week’s Jimmy Butler trade, Wiggins has been ruled out for Thursday’s matchup against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center (8:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) because of a stomach illness.
In addition, Heat three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo will miss Thursday’s game in Dallas because of a left knee contusion after recording 27 points, 15 rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Thunder. It marks just the second game that Adebayo has sat out this season.
Along with missing Adebayo and Wiggins, the Heat will also be without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Kevin Love (personal reasons), Terry Rozier (stomach illness), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Mavericks. This leaves the Heat with just 10 available players.
The Mavericks’ roster is also depleted entering Thursday’s game.
Dallas will be missing Anthony Davis (left adductor strain), Daniel Gafford (right knee sprain), Kyrie Irving (right shoulder soreness), Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture), Caleb Martin (right hip strain), Dwight Powell (right hip strain), Klay Thompson (left foot sprain) and P.J. Washington (right ankle sprain) against the Heat. This leaves the Mavericks with only nine available players.
Following Thursday’s game, the Heat and Mavericks enter the NBA’s All-Star break.
CASH OUT
As part of last week’s trade that moved Butler to the Warriors, the Heat sent out $563,655 to the Utah Jazz to take on the salary of guard Josh Richardson and $3.5 million to the Toronto Raptors to take on the contract of forward P.J. Tucker.
With NBA teams allowed to send out a maximum of $7.2 million in cash via transactions this season, those moves left the Heat with about $3.6 million that it can still send out before the current NBA calendar ends on June 30.
This cash does not count against the salary cap, luxury tax or aprons.
By sending out cash in a trade, the Heat is now hard-capped at the second apron for the rest of the season. But that shouldn’t be an issue for Miami, as the Butler trade left the Heat below the first apron.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
ESPN removed the Heat’s Feb. 23 game against the Bucks in Milwaukee from its national television schedule. The game’s start time was also changed from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m EST.
With ESPN no longer broadcasting the game, the Heat-Bucks matchup on Feb. 23 will only be aired locally on FanDuel Sports Network Sun.
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM.
