Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dragic playing status is still anyone’s guess
NEW ORLEANS — Amid the Miami Heat’s strong finish to the road trip with wins in Memphis and New Orleans, uncertainty remains surrounding starting point guard Goran Dragic and his troublesome right knee.
Dragic began the six-game trek through the West by slowly working his way back into the mix. He alternated being active for games against the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers, sitting against the Clippers in between.
Following that short on-again, off-again return, Dragic missed the final three games of the road trip, and there doesn’t seem to be many answers as to how serious this setback may be.
Asked ahead of Sunday’s game against the Pelicans about his concern regarding Dragic, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “He’s not playing tonight, so our focus is just on the guys that are available.”
Dragic was in and out of the locker room before Sunday’s game and declined to comment on his status when approached by reporters, saying he had no update.
With an eight-game absence preceding the trip, Dragic has missed 12 of the last 14 games.
The team originally hoped Dragic, who had his knee drained last month, would only be out for a few games.
With the Heat off until Thursday night’s game against the Houston Rockets, the hope is that Dragic could return following the three-day break.
Forward Justise Winslow also might return against the Rockets after missing the second half of Sunday’s game with right ankle pain.
“It just stiffened up,” Spoelstra said. “He didn’t have mobility in the second half. It had kind of been bothering him on this road trip, but wasn’t able to push through in the second half.”
Why Wade got involved: Dwyane Wade opened up some about why the issue regarding his son’s friend’s expulsion from Plantation private high school American Heritage was so important to him and wife Gabrielle Union, along with nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
“It’s not that we wanted to get involved. It was a situation that happened with our kids and one of our kid’s best friends,” Wade said. “We want to get behind the truth of it. This is a kid that spends the weekends over at our house — someone [who] we know his family.
“It was puzzling that the school decided to expel him so fast. So we just set out for the truth, more than anything, and we haven’t gotten proof of what they said happened to the kid.”
American Heritage basketball player Cyrus Nance, who is friends with Wade’s oldest son, Zaire Wade, was expelled for cursing at the school’s girls basketball coach, Greg Farias, during an argument where Nance and friends were playing basketball in the school gym while Farias was holding his team’s practice, according to a release from Crump. Nance’s attorneys said Farias cursed at Nance first before Nance cursed back.
Zaire Wade also plays basketball for American Heritage as a junior and is a college basketball prospect, having received an offer from Nebraska.
“We also had our own thing going with our kids and some things that was verbally said to them that we didn’t like,” Dwyane Wade said.
Johnson in and out of rhythm: Power forward James Johnson had one of his better scoring outputs since his return from sports hernia surgery on Friday in Memphis with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, but he was held to three points on 1-of-4 shooting on Sunday in New Orleans.
With the depth the Heat have, Johnson understands he’s not always going to find his rhythm so easily.
“Sometimes you’re not going to get your 11, 12, 13 shots up,” Johnson said. “To find a rhythm on this team is a totally different thing because every night it could be somebody else. We feed into that. We give all of our energy, empower the guys that’s doing the best that night.”
Johnson said he still feels lingering effects during his recovery, and the main thing for him is gaining trust in his legs.
“I think it’s still taking some time, but every day I feel my legs getting stronger, my pop coming back and my explosiveness,” he said. “I’m still doing my same routine I always have, still doing my leg lifts before games and get activated and all that. I think it’s starting to pay dividends.”