South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Adebayo, Dragic listed as doubtful for Game 3
Down 2 starters in 2-0 hole is trouble
Center Bam Adebayo and guard Goran Dragic both were listed Saturday as doubtful on the Miami Heat’s injury report for Sunday’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Both missed Friday night’s 124-114 loss that dropped the Heat to 0-2 in the best-of-seven series at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. Adebayo was out with a sprained neck sustained in the second half of Wednesday’s 116-98 loss in the series’ opener. Dragic missed Friday’s game with a torn plantar fascia in his left foot sustained in the second quarter of Game 1.
The Heat started Meyers Leonard in place of Adebayo in Game 2, with Tyler Herro starting in place of Dragic. It was the first postseason start for Herro and the second appearance in these playoffs for Leonard.
Both pushed to play in Game 2, but coach Erik Spoelstra rejected those overtures on the advice of the team’s medical staff. Adebayo told Yahoo Sports that he was hopeful for a return Sunday.
“Yes, I believe I’ll be in the lineup,” he said. “I’m feeling better. I believe I’ll play”
There is another single-day break between Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. game and Tuesday’s 9 p.m. Game 4.
“We’ve got to play with a level of desperation,” Adebayo said. “That’s what I see. We’ve got to be a desperate team and come out with a lot of energy from the jump. I’m confident we can turn things around.”
Captain says
Udonis Haslem’s impassioned takeover of the Heat’s huddle in Friday’s third quarter caught the attention of both teams.
“UD’s been there before, numerous times, and he knows what it takes,” center Kelly Olynyk said of the veteran forward and team captain.
“We look up to somebody like that.”
But forward Jimmy Butler said it should not have to come to that.
“I like the way that we responded to it,” Butler said. “But we got guys that when you tell them what it is, we normally respond. So maybe he should just start the game off cussing people out.”
Having been on the other side, when he won championships alongside Haslem with the Heat in 2012 and ’13, Lakers forward LeBron James said he could appreciate the motivation.
“Check his resume,” James said. “It’s that simple. I mean, he’s put in the work.
“He’s been there through everything that the Heat franchise has seen. He’s seen it all, done it all. Just check his resume.
“There’s not many guys that talk about it and also be about it, and he’s one of them. If you want to be in the foxhole, that’s somebody you want to be in the foxhole with.”
Record run
Lost in disappointment of the loss in the first two games was that forward Jae Crowder has tied Antoine Walker’s single-postseason Heat record of 48 3-pointers in these playoffs. Walker set the record during the Heat’s run to the 2006 NBA championship.
Guard Duncan Robinson also is poised to pass Walker’s record, with 46 3-pointers at this point.