Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Richardson back home
Spoelstra: Move because of sprain makes sense
SALT LAKE CITY — Josh Richardson became the latest player to turn the Miami Heat’s three-game trip into a homestand, returning Thursday to South Florida for treatment of his sprained right ankle.
Richardson was held out of Wednesday night’s 106-98 victory over the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center after he began to experience increasing pain from the sprain sustained in Monday’s loss to the Boston Celtics at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat previously left forward Justise Winslow behind for treatment on his sore left wrist, with guard Dion Waiters left behind for a groin strain that an MRI showed to be a Pectineus tear.
“It’s an easy decision for us,” coach Erik Spoelstra said before Thursday night’s game against the Utah Jazz at Vivant Smart Home Arena. “His ankle is really sore. He has a bunch of other little, minor things going on. So we just wanted to go back, get his body right, feel right for the next three days, four days. We’ll reevaluate him then. But it’s a perfect set-up right now. Guys are getting great work in. He’ll join them [Friday].”
The Heat have had limited practice opportunities on this trip. The team said Richardson would be listed as questionable going forward, with the Heat’s schedule after this trip to resume Tuesday against the visiting New York Knicks before immediately heading out for another three-game trip. The game against the Knicks begins a run of four games in five nights, the Heat’s lone such stretch this season.
Waiters has been ruled out for at least the next two weeks, with the Heat hopeful of having Winslow back for the Knicks game, after what would wind up as an 11-game absence.
“If we didn’t have that setup, maybe we would have evaluated it differently,” Spoelstra said of Richardson having teammates to rehabilitate alongside. “But, right now, we have a really good set-up there.
“It’s a great setup for him to go back and join them.”
Richardson pulled himself out of the Heat’s Tuesday practice in Denver and by Wednesday morning’s shootaround recognized there was an issue.
“I tried to walk through [Tuesday] and do shootaround [Wednesday] morning and it was tough. I got treatment all day, so I thought it would be better. But I went out for warmups and it didn’t feel right,” Richardson said after suiting up but sitting out the victory in Denver.
Of the play in question against the Celtics, Richardson said, “I remember I was guarding Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart came out of nowhere and hit me and it was a foul. And I remember falling and I remember just kind of limping the rest of the game. But I don’t know exactly how it happened. I just remembered it happened kind of fast.
“I wasn’t sure what it was. I thought it was something minor, but I just kept feeling it.”
Richardson’s start to the season was delayed until the fifth game after a preseason non-surgical knee injury.
Now there is this setback for the second-year guard who has started this season for the Heat at point guard, shooting guard and small forward.
“I’m just taking it in stride,” he said. “I’m not going to get down. I’m not going to get upset about it. I’ll just try to get back as fast as possible.”
Spoelstra said the team is confident Richardson’s injury is just a sprain.
“He’s been diagnosed with just an ankle sprain,” he said. “But he has other things, bumps and bruises, a wrist. It’ll be good for him just to go back there, work on conditioning, get healthy and hopefully we’ll reevaluate everybody on Sunday when we get back and hopefully we’ll have guys ready to practice on Monday.”