Injury continues to nag Dragic
Point guard sits out Wednesday night’s game against Jazz
SALT LAKE CITY — The on-again, off-again pattern with Goran Dragic has the Miami Heat again without their starting point guard.
Dragic missed eight consecutive games from Nov. 18 to Dec. 4 after having his swollen right knee drained. He then returned with 11 points and 10 assists in Friday’s victory at the start of this six-game trip before being held out of Saturday night’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers for what the team listed as “rest.”
Dragic was back in the Heat starting lineup for Monday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but played only 18 minutes, with coach Erik Spoelstra saying the team was being careful about a recurrence.
Instead, there was a recurrence.
“His knee was sore after the game,” Spoelstra said Wednesday, with Dragic held out of both the morning shootaround and the
game against the Utah Jazz and Vivint Smart Home Arena.
“We’ve been dealing with it for a month,” Spoelstra said, “so the situation basically is the same.”
Actually, it has been longer than that. Dragic missed two games in early November with pain in the knee, returning the following game in a scoreless outing in a loss to the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Asked if the knee had grown into a long-term concern, Spoelstra said, “We’ll evaluate it every day. I don’t have a new update for you.”
Dragic was not made available by the team for comment.
Having dealt with his share of knee injuries, teammate Dwyane Wade said he could appreciate the physical and emotional roller-coaster.
“It’s frustrating,” Wade said. “It messes with everything, from the standpoint of your family life, what kind of mood you’re in. Obviously, someone special like Goran who loves to play this game, it messes with your confidence. So it messes you in so many different ways. It sucks. Point-blank, period, it sucks.”
The Heat have been increasing the ballhandling workload of Justise Winslow in Dragic’s absences.
“I mean, I like having the ball in my hand,” Winslow said. “But I don’t want it at the expense of my teammate’s health, obviously. So it’s bittersweet. As a player, you want the ball, but you never want to see your teammate go down. So I’m feeling for him.
“I know where his heart is and his mind is right now. And it’s not a great place, especially a competitor like him and coming off the year, not even the season, he had last year, but the entire year, from the Euro League to becoming an All-Star and leading our group. I’m excited to embrace more responsibility, but I’m also feeling for my teammate.”
Whiteside Friday: Center Hassan Whiteside, who has missed the first four games of the trip for the birth of his first child, will rejoin the team in time for Friday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, the team announced before Wednesday’s game.
Whiteside’s son was born Sunday.
Wade missed seven games for paternity leave last month for the birth of his daughter. Whiteside has missed four.
The Heat have been starting Bam Adebayo at center in Whiteside’s absence.
Spoelstra said guard Dion Waiters, who has been out since January ankle surgery, would not play on this trip.
Wade moment: Amid his retirement season, Wade received a rocking chair during a private Tuesday diner from Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, with the two having grown close from their common endorsement.
“The rocking chair was kind of our little way of saying, ‘Welcome into the new life outside the NBA,’ “Mitchell told reporters.
Among others present were Jazz forward Royce O’Neale and the Heat’s Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Johnson and Udonis Haslem. Other Heat players, including Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder, James Johnson and Adebayo attended a G League game featuring former Heat center Willie Reed.