Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
3 wings shy of full plate
McGruder, Ellington and Waiters sidelined
MIAMI — When it comes to what the Heat want for the holidays, health remains a primary area of need.
Thursday night’s nationally televised game against the Lakers at AmericanAirlines Arena continued the trend, with guards Rodney McGruder, Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters remaining sidelined.
With the game against the Lakers opening a backto-back set that concludes tonight in New Orleans, the three are not expected back until the Heat resume their post-Christmas schedule Tuesday against the visiting Thunder.
“I don’t think Dion and Wayne are ready for that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of traveling.
McGruder has now missed two games with a left ankle sprained he previously injured and then aggravated during Monday’s practice. He had started the 14 previous games before this absence.
Ellington, who strained his right hamstring during the third quarter of last Friday’s home loss to the Clippers, has now missed three consecutive games with the ailment, after missing the first 16 games of the season with a bruised right thigh.
Waiters has now missed 14 consecutive games with a Pectineus tear, the groin injury having him off the court since Nov. 26, having started the season’s first 16 games before being sidelined.
The Heat, of course, also have been without Chris Bosh since he failed his preseason physical, after missing the second half of the past two seasons due to blood clots.
Christmas break
Spoelstra said it will feel different with the Heat idle on Christmas for the first time since 2008.
“You want all your games to have significance,” he said. “When you play on Christmas, you really feel the significance of it.”
Of the snub that was scheduled even before the Heat’s early-season struggles, Spoelstra said: “That’s how this team is perceived. But that’s not how we’re going to treat the rest of the year.”
Instead, he said he will view the scheduling as family time.
“We’re all able to have some family come in,” he said. “I guess that would be the benefit of it, and celebrate with loved ones. I don’t even remember what that was like.”
But there are limits. Despite a three-day break after tonight, Spoelstra said there won’t be a three-day break for the players.
“We’ll have a light day on Christmas Eve,” he said. “Miami Heat, come on.”
Moving on
Spoelstra said he has moved on from Hassan Whiteside’s questioning of his shot totals.
“What I like is that he wants to impact more,” Spoelstra said Thursday. “And he’s starting to learn all the different ways you can impact winning. And your initial instinct will be about touches. But that’s a fraction of the game and how you can impact it.”
Whiteside had questioned his lack of late-game touches in a double-overtime loss Tuesday to the Magic.
Spoelstra said his conversations with his shotblocking center have shown an awareness of ways to otherwise influence outcomes.
“He’s really starting to embrace how important he is to this team and his leadership and the responsibility to all the details and little things, and that’s the part that’s been good to see,” Spoelstra said.
“So when the guy speaks up like that, and I’ve been pushing him and prodding him and shoving him to want to do more, and he does, amen.”