Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Butler doubtful vs. Kings; Herro out again
The Miami Heat are listing Jimmy Butler as doubtful for Friday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.
Butler was injured in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center, when he strained his right shoulder, spending the balance of the game in the locker room.
He was taken for an MRI when the Heat arrived Thursday afternoon in Sacramento, with the team expected to release those results Friday.
“It’s a strain in my shoulder somewhere,” he said, downplaying the severity. “That’s all we know right now. I guess whenever I was out there hacking people, my shoulder just went the wrong way. It didn’t agree with the contact.”
The Heat are listing guard Tyler Herro as out for the Kings game due to a sore right ankle, which also sidelined him against the Clippers.
Butler has missed six games this season, including the first game of the two-game season series against the Kings, when he sat out the Heat’s overtime victory Jan. 20 at American-Airlines Arena due to hip soreness.
The Heat are 4-2 in Butler’s absence, going 2-1 when he missed the season’s first three games for the birth of his daughter, losing Nov. 27 on the road to the Houston Rockets when he was ill, defeating the visiting Portland Trail Blazers Jan. 5 when he was out with lower-back soreness, and then the previous Kings game.
The Heat have a quick turnaround after Friday’s game, with a Sunday game against the Portland Trail Blazers and then a Monday game against the Golden State Warriors, on the third and fourth stops of this five-game trip that concludes Wednesday against the Utah Jazz.