Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Winslow (knee) out vs. Hornets
Johnson returns; Whiteside still gone
MIAMI — As the Miami Heat look to bounce back after Wednesday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, they will continue to be without center Hassan Whiteside and forward Justise Winslow.
Though Whiteside participated in some drills and worked with assistant coach Juwan Howard on Thursday, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Whiteside won’t travel to his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., for tonight’s game.
Winslow, who left Wednesday night’s loss after straining his left knee, will also stay in South Florida and go through treatment and rehabilitation work with Whiteside, Spoelstra said.
“He was doing work before practice. This is the extent of what he was able to do today. He will not travel with us,” Spoelstra said of Whiteside, who has missed seven straight games with a bone bruise on his left knee. “This is his first court work and it’s good to obviously see him out here, but we’ll [continue to] evaluate him and see if he can do more.”
While the Heat won’t have Whiteside or Winslow tonight, they expect to get some help from Tyler Johnson, who sat out the loss to Portland because of a migraine.
Johnson said he was able to lift weights and went through
practice Thursday without feeling any major lingering effects of Wednesday’s migraine. He added that he’ll play tonight with no restrictions.
The guard also said that while he often dealt with migraines as a child, this was only the second time he could remember one strong enough to sideline him during his three-year NBA career.
“It was fine. It was back to normal,” Johnson said of how he felt during Thursday’s practice. “I don’t know if people really know what migraines really are. It just seems like it’s a headache, but it’s a frustrating process you have to go through once you start to get one. … [I’m] not sure, really sure what causes them, but, yeah, I don’t think I’ve missed too many [games] in the NBA from it.”
For the Heat (13-14), Wednesday’s game was another dose of homecourt misery. Miami has posted a 5-7 record at AmericanAirlines Arena, blowing a 16-point, third-quarter lead against the Blazers, who surged as the Heat wore down.
Miami closed the game with a seven-man rotation, and though no one wanted to use fatigue as an excuse for how Portland was able to rally, center Kelly Olynyk conceded so many players logging so many minutes may have contributed to some mistakes down the stretch.
“I wasn’t that tired down the stretch. But yeah, maybe we made a little bit of mistakes because of that,” said Olynyk, who had 10 points in Wednesday’s loss. “We only played seven guys in the second half, huh? But we got to be able to stick with it and come out with a win in that situation.”
Asked whether Wednesday’s game was reminiscent of some of the Heat’s issues a year ago when a spate of injuries contributed to a 9-18 start, Johnson could only smile.
Things are different, he noted, even if the Heat also remain without Okaro White and Rodney McGruder, who both had surgery and remain out indefinitely.
“For the guys who are here, it’s nothing new as far as playing shorthanded,” Johnson said. “[It’s] maybe a little less frustrating because the record is a little bit different than when we were going through it last year, but at the same time, yeah, because you know how hard some of these guys have worked. Not only on their body, but on their game, so it’s frustrating from that aspect.”