Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tyler Johnson listed as probable for Nets game
had Johnson out five games. The Heat have six games remaining in the regular season.
“Yeah, it looked similar to the one in Chicago with [Robin] Lopez,” Spoelstra said. “But it wasn’t. At least as we know right now, initially, it wasn’t as bad as that one.”
The Heat went 2-3 without Johnson during that January absence with a sprained left ankle. But that was before Rodney McGruder returned from his preseason leg surgery and before Dwyane Wade was acquired from the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Feb. 8 NBA trading deadline.
McGruder started Thursday’s second half in place of Johnson, with the Heat now better positioned to rest Johnson, if needed.
“If you play hard, those injuries can happen. Tyler, he’s a tough player,” point guard Goran Dragic said. “He’s playing through a lot of contact, too. So sometimes those things are going to happen.”
One option if Johnson is limited could be additional minutes for Wade. But Spoelstra sees Wade, 36, comfortable with his minutes in the mid-20s.
“I think Coach is playing the minutes smart and not trying to overdo it,” Wade said. “But, me going overtime games, I can play the next five, or whatever. It’s just something in the regular season he just wants to keep my minutes around 23. But I definitely can play more when need be.”
With the Heat having been through so many injuries and so many lineups, forward Josh Richardson said it becomes almost routine to adjust, as the Heat did in Thursday’s second half.
“It’s the NBA man,” he said. “It’s a lot of games. It’s tough to get your whole team healthy all the time. I know Tyler will bounce back really quickly. So I’m not worried.” around. But it took me a while to get acclimated. My wind felt great, it’s just those guys were moving around.
“It’s just getting back used to it, getting back into a rhythm of just making shots, just that aspect of it.”
Back in the starting lineup, Whiteside closed with eight points, seven rebounds, two blocks and a career-high-tying four assists in 19:28.
“His conditioning was a little bit better than I anticipated,” Spoelstra said. “But he’s been doing a lot of work behind the scenes and I thought he was able to play with the pace that we’re playing at.
“It’s just good to have him back out there. He clearly gives us something different.”
Spoelstra essentially told Dragic to get Whiteside back up to speed.
“Spo told me, ‘G, run, run, make sure Whiteside runs with you,” Dragic said. “So I was kind of trying to push it a little bit. H, he was running with us.”