Oladipo missing another game for Heat. Here are updates on three other injured players
After missing much of the season recovering from last May’s right quadriceps tendon surgery, Victor Oladipo now is in the midst of a multigame absence due to back spasms.
The Heat ruled out Oladipo and Gabe Vincent for Monday’s game at Philadelphia.
Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin are listed as questionable.
This will be the second consecutive game that Oladipo will miss due to right lower back spasms.
“I think this is just the added workload,” Erik Spoelstra said Friday about Oladipo’s back. “You can do everything behind the scenes and all the conditioning and it’s not like real game action. But we’ll definitely be able to manage it. He’s already starting to feel a lot better.”
Oladipo has played in four games since returning from the knee surgery and is averaging 5.5 points and 16.3 minutes while playing under a minutes restriction.
Vincent, who played on Friday against Oklahoma City, is out Monday with a right big toe contusion.
Butler missed Friday’s game against Oklahoma City with a right ankle sprain but might play on Monday, depending on his progress over the next day.
Butler, a six-time All-Star, missed three games because of the ankle issue in November and another three games with an ankle injury in January. He has missed 23 games overall this season and the Heat is 14-9 without him.
Martin, meanwhile, is questionable with a left knee hyperextension. The injury sidelined him for three games before he returned to play Friday against OKC.
The Heat still has not had its entire roster available for a game this season.
The Heat (47-24) entered Sunday three games ahead of both No. 2 Philadelphia and No. 3 Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference standings. Boston is fourth, four games back of Miami.
The Heat has won two of the first three meetings in the season series with Philadelphia. Even if Philadelphia wins Monday to even the season series, Miami has a good chance to win the tiebreaker because of a superior conference record.
Monday’s game was changed from 7 to 7:30 p.m. because the 76ers are playing Toronto at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night.
Because the 76ers play on Sunday night, Philadelphia hasn’t released its injury report for Monday’s game.
But if James Harden plays against Toronto (and he’s not on the injury report), it’s not certain he will play on Monday. Philadelphia held him out on March 5 against Miami, the second night of a back to back set.
76ers center Joel Embiid is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against Toronto because of back soreness.
Heat guard Kyle Guy, on a two-way contract, won’t be with the team in Philadelphia. He’s with Miami’s G-League team.
Here’s my Sunday piece on why the Heat’s developmental program is so successful, from the perspective of Udonis Haslem.
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 3:10 PM.
