Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ellington, Tyler Johnson scratches for Laker game.
MIAMI — Roster prosperity again has been put on hold for the Miami Heat.
Two days after getting Kelly Olynyk and Rodney McGruder back into their rotation, the Heat now find themselves without guards Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington, with both ruled out following the morning shootaround for Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Johnson and Ellington both were forced out of Tuesday’s victory over the Philadelphia 76ers with left thigh contusions.
Johnson had moved into the starting lineup in the wake of Dion Waiters’ season-ending ankle surgery in January, with Ellington emerging as one of the league’s top reserves with his 3-point accuracy.
It is the second absence of the season for Ellington, who missed the Feb. 7 home loss to the visiting Houston Rockets with a strained right shoulder.
It is the fourth time Johnson has been sidelined. He missed the Dec. 13 loss to the visiting Portland Trail Blazers with a migraine, the Jan. 9 road victory over the Toronto Raptors with a strained left shoulder, and then five games in late January with a sprained left ankle, with the Heat 2-3 over that span.
Coach Erik Spoelstra said he did not view moving Dwyane Wade into the starting lineup as an option.
“I want to him to get as comfortable with that second unit as possible,” he said, with Wade having played in reserve since returning to the Heat in a Feb. 8 trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers. “That, to me, is a dynamic, game-changing lineup that I want them to continue to gain confidence in, get more comfortable with.”
The Heat close out their five-game homestand with a Saturday game against the Detroit Pistons and then a Monday game against the Phoenix Suns.
Olynyk retuned in the victory over the 76ers after missing the previous six games with a strained left shoulder. McGruder made his season debut against the 76ers after four months of recovery from preseason leg surgery.
Whose house?
Tri-captain Udonis Haslem said he got a kick out of Wade reprising his this-is-my-house celebration after Tuesday’s winning shot against the 76ers, even though it almost came off as stock footage.
“They all seem about the same to me, because his celebration, ‘This is my house,’ is all the same, every time — ‘This is my house,’ “Haslem quipped. “He looks over at Micky [Arison, the team owner]. They all seem the same to me because the celebration is the same.”
Wade of course had been away from South Florida for a season and a half, with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers, while Haslem has been with the team continuously since the two entered the NBA as rookies in 2003. So whose house? “Listen,” Haslem said. “I’m the landlord. He rents from me. I’m the landlord. I’m his bank.”
Still working
McGruder said conditioning remains an issue as he works his way back.
“I still have some room there,” he said. “I’m getting there though. There’s always some room for improvement. I do want to get a little bit more in better shape.”
He admitted surprise when, after returning early in the day on a red-eye flight from his two-game G League rehab stint, he was inserted in Tuesday’s game.
The second-year swingman said he first checked with assistant coaches Juwan Howard, Dan
Craig and Chris Quinn that Spoelstra actually was calling his name.
“I asked them, ‘He said my name?’ Just to clarify,’” McGruder said.
It’s time
Spoelstra has been using the phrase “it’s time,” during this homestand.
Asked what he thought it meant, Wade went into specifics.
“It’s time, first of all, to understand that it’s the opportunity we have,” he said. “It’s for us to get to our game consistently. It’s time for us to understand how good we can be. It’s time for us to make this run down the stretch.
“It’s right there. We’re right on the cusp. You can see it. It definitely can go either way. Even in the game that we’ve lost since I’ve been here, you can see it, you can see in this team. It’s there. As we get confident, as we continue to put all these links together, it’s time to start dominating games.”