Butler out vs. Celtics due to ankle soreness

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler was held out of Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Celtics at Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex due what the team termed “right ankle soreness.”

A half hour before the team’s announcement, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, when asked about his approach for the night, said, “I’m expecting everybody available.”

Then, after not previously listing any injuries for the game on the NBA’s injury reports, the Heat on the 5:30 p.m. injury report listed Butler as questionable.

The game against the Celtics completed the Heat’s lone backto-back set of their eight-game “seeding” scheduled to close out the regular season. Butler played 33:14 in Monday’s 107-104 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

“I have to see how our guys look out there,” Spoelstra said when asked how he planned to utilize his rotation on the second night of the consecutive games. “I know some guys are a little bit sore. So we’ll see. Everybody has to do one back-to-back.”

In was the third time in as many meetings this season that the Heat faced the Celtics on the second night of a back-to-back set.

It was the 12th game Butler has missed this season. He missed the first three games of the season for his daughter’s birth, a game in November due to illness, two in January due to back and then hip soreness, two in February due to a shoulder strain, two later in February due to a personal matter, and then the final game before the NBA’s four-month shutdown due to the new coronavirus pandemic, on March 11, due to a toe injury. The Heat stood 5-6 in his absence going into Tuesday’s game.

With Butler out, the Heat added Kelly Olynyk into the starting lineup, alongside Bam Adebayo, Jae Crowder, Duncan Robinson and Kenrick Nunn. Butler was listed as inactive.