Butler, Dragic expected back as rematch looms vs. Pacers
As the stakes increase for the Miami Heat, so do the options for coach Erik Spoelstra.
Forward Jimmy Butler and guard Goran Dragic returned to practice Sunday at Disney World, in the wake of injuries that have the Heat on a two-game losing streak going into tonight’s playoffseeding showdown against the Indiana Pacers.
Butler has missed the past three games with a sore right foot, with Dragic missing the past two with a sprained left ankle. Both are listed as questionable because of NBA protocols, but both are expected to play.
In addition, guard Kendrick Nunn is back in the Disney bubble after briefly leaving for a personal matter, but he now must quarantine for at least four days amid the NBA’s attempt to avoid COVID-19 infection in its controlled setting.
For the Heat, the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference is hanging in the balance over their final three “seeding” games ahead of the Aug. 17 start of the NBA playoffs. The Heat enter Monday tied with Indiana at 43-27 but have clinched the tiebreaker by virtue of being a division champion. The Heat could fall as low as No. 6, which would mean a firstround series against the Boston Celtics.
“We had a great day today,” Spoelstra said after Sunday’s practice. “Our team, that’s a great quality about this group — come back to work and just work on things we need to get bet
ter at.”
Monday’s game is the first of two this week against the Pacers, with a rematch Friday. The Heat’s other remaining regularseason game is Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For Butler, there will be added spice to the mix against the Pacers, who stand as a likely Heat opponent in the best-of-seven first round of the playoffs.
The last time the teams met, in early January, Butler and Warren had several contentious confrontations, episodes that included Warren ejected for a middle finger directed at Butler and then Butler blowing a kiss in Warren’s direction.
“He’s trash,” Butler said shortly after the Heat’s 122-108 Jan. 8 victory Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
“He’s soft. He’s soft,” Butler continued at the time, adding a profanity at the end of that comment.
And on it went, including, “I mean, to me, I think it’s tough for him, because I can guard him and he can’t guard me.”
While Butler has struggled with his health at Disney, Warren has emerged as the leading scorer in the bubble, with efforts of 53, 34, 32, 16 and 39 points in Indiana’s 4-1 run.
Butler, by contrast, has scored 22 and 16 points in his two Disney appearances, with the Heat 2-3 during the restart.
While Butler was not made available for comment Sunday, teammate Jae Crowder said it is only natural to expect emotions to be amplified.
“Obviously, what’s going on at
I know with that situation,” Crowder said. “When it’s all said and done, it kills all the talk. So that’s our focus going into to it. Obviously, that’s a heated matchup between the two. But you win the game and the rest of it is history.”
Unlike the Heat, the Pacers took Sunday off. But Indiana guard Victor Oladipo said after Saturday’s victory over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers that Warren and his team have greater concerns.
“Hey, look, T.J. Warren is on a different planet right now,” Oladipo said. “It don’t matter what I say, it don’t matter what you say, it don’t matter what somebody down the street say — Johnny, Barley, Ms. Susie — he locked in right now. I don’t need to encourage him to do anything. He’s going to put the ball in the rim regardless of who’s out there.”
So here the teams stand, with high-stakes basketball, on both the team and personal level, in August.
“If the stakes are higher and the altitude and the magnitude of the game is high,” Crowder said, “I’m all for it. And I look forward to it.”
But center Bam Adebayo said there also must be perspective.
“It’s not about what everybody is excited for,” he said. “These games are here so we can get back into somewhat the rhythm we had when the season stopped. This is bigger than just him and Jimmy or the Indiana and Miami Heat clash. It’s bigger than that.
“We want to get into these playoffs and make a run. In order to do that, we got to win these seeding games, so when we get to the playoffs, we’re not going into the playoffs off a loss — we’re going off a win, confident, and ready to hoop.”