Heat head out west with injury concerns
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Miami Heat took flight Sunday with an ample amount of bodies. Whether they will prove to be ambulatory is another question, one likely not to be fully answered until shortly before tonight’s opening tip against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.
Despite ailments that left their immediate outlooks murky, Dwyane Wade, Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow all traveled for the three-game trip that continues Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings and concludes Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Wade left Saturday night’s 129-102 victory over the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena in the fourth quarter with what the team lists as a mild left hamstring strain. Winslow left later in that period with a sore right knee. Whiteside did not even make it to the opening tap, ruled out with what he said was a strained left hip flexor.
Whiteside was replaced in the starting lineup against the Wizards by Bam Adebayo, who closed with six points and eight rebounds despite foul trouble, supported by a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double by Kelly Olynyk. The departures of Wade and Winslow did not impact Saturday’s rotation, with the game in control by that stage.
Wade knew he had work to do off the court as soon as he senses the hamstring issue.
“I won’t be in the lineup against Portland, I can probably guarantee that,” he said following Saturday’s game, when he was needed for only 14:55 because of the lopsided score. “I have time to get treatment and try to take it day to day and see when I get back. Hopefully I’m not out too long. I don’t know how long.
“I have no timetable right now. All you can do is do your treatment and do your strengthening and whenever you feel like it’s ready to go, just get on the floor.”
Whiteside also was not optimistic about being available against the Blazers.
“With strains it’s pretty tricky,” he said. “They can last a couple of days; they can go away. I definitely don’t want to go out there and make it worse and then it’s something that’s lingering for month.”
He said he was advised not to play.
“We were doing shootaround and I felt something. I strained my hip flexor,” he said. “So, anytime something happens to me, I always ask the same question, ‘If I play, what will happen?’ And they would say, ‘You are going to make it worse.’ Any time I hear that, the doctors are going to tell me to just relax and take it day by day, take it easy.”
Wade also may have to take it easy, yet to miss a turn in this Heat return.
“I just felt it when I made a move,” he said. “But it feels about the same right now. It feels about what it is unless you tear it or you strain it real bad or you pull it. The strain just felt like a little cramp. The day that happens and the next one you feel if it’s worse or the same so we just have to wait and see.”
With a team flight so long that Whiteside said he planned to watch three moves — “included Titanic, and that should take most of the time” — it meant dealing with travel and therapy at the same time.
“Yeah that’s not ideal,” he said.
“It’s always day to day when you have certain kinds of strains.”