Whiteside needs court work, Spoelstra says
MIAMI — The timetable projected by the Miami Heat for Hassan Whiteside’s strength and conditioning program ends today. But when it comes to the timetable for a return from the bone bruise on the center’s left knee, coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday that additional steps remain.
“We’ll monitor him, so he can get multiple days on the court, whether or not that’s full practice. I don’t know, but it’s going to have to be some stages of court work, that where he builds up,” Spoelstra said before Whiteside sat out Wednesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Wednesday marked the seventh consecutive game Whiteside has missed with this latest bone bruise, after missing five games earlier in the season with a similar injury.
Whiteside was not with the team during the justconcluded trip that included a game against the Brooklyn City.
Spoelstra said he remained in contact with Whiteside while the team was on the road, before reconnecting at Tuesday’s team holiday party.
“I was really encouraged after the second day, when he said he had worked out three times,” Spoelstra said of his communications last week with Whiteside. “By the time I texted him after our San Antonio game, he had worked out three times that day. And then the next day when I connected with him, he said he didn’t have any soreness.
“That wasn’t a practice. It was more conditioning and corrective exercises, pool and bike work. That’s a good step.”
The Heat announced after Whiteside sat out the Nov. 29 road loss to the New York Knicks that his “rehab process will include a strength and conditioning program over the next one to two weeks.”
That timetable through today.
“There is no timetable,” Spoelstra said. “Let’s make no assumptions of that. He’s doing a lot better. He’s been working out two, sometimes three times a day, a lot of corrective work, a lot of lifting, a lot of Nets in Mexico runs conditioning.”
The Heat next play Friday at the Charlotte Hornets. It’s not far from where Whiteside was raised. That challenge against Hornets center Dwight Howard will be followed by a Saturday home game against DeAndre Jordan and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Additional consultation was scheduled Wednesday with team physician Harlan Selesnick.
“And then we’ll put together the next stage of his plan,” Spoelstra said.
According to the team, a Nov. 30 MRI revealed a bone bruise in a different spot on the same knee, an injury apparently sustained in the Nov. 22 home victory over the visiting Boston Celtics.
Whiteside, under NBA and team policy, has not been made available since initially addressing this injury. He said before the Dec. 1 home game against the Hornets, “I think I kind of rushed it before, so just wait until I’m totally 100 percent. So I don’t want to come back and be a watered-down Hassan and people looking at you crazy like, ‘What’s wrong with Hassan? Why is he not playing at this level?’ or whatever. I don’t even want to risk that.”