Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Normalcy returns for 76ers, as Heat continue short-handed
To appreciate the next step for the Miami Heat is to appreciate the step taken Thursday by the Philadelphia 76ers ahead of the teams’ meeting at Wells Fargo Center.
Having gone through a shorthanded week due to pandemic protocols, the 76ers had Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton and other quarantined players back in uniform.
“It’s been a whirlwind of a week,” 76ers guard Danny Green said ahead of Thursday night’s game. “Things
have gotten back to normal.”
The same could be said for the Heat as soon as Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena, at least for some of the eight players sent home from Boston earlier in the week due to COVID-19 concerns.
Thursday, though, it was a second consecutive game day for Erik Spoelstra’s team without Bam Adebayo, Avery Bradley, Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, Maurice Harkless, Udonis Haslem, KZ Okpala and Kendrick Nunn.
Those absences, plus the shoulder injury sustained by center Meyers Leonard at the start of the trip on Saturday night against the Washington Wizards, again had the Heat with the NBA minimum of eight players cleared for the second consecutive matchup against the 76ers: Precious Achiuwa, Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk, Duncan Robinson, Chris Silva, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent.
Strus and Vincent both are on two-way contracts, limited to 50 appearances during the pandemic-shortened 72-game regular season. Vincent had been active for three games prior to Thursday, Strus for two.
Spoelstra said there was no thought of finding a way to get to fewer than seven and therefore trigger a postponement.
“This is who we are and you have to develop these competitive habits,” he said 90 minutes before Thursday night’s game. “And the best way to do it are in these type of circumstances, when you could make a lot of excuses.
“I always point to three years ago, with Bam, when we were fighting, scratching and crawling to make the playoffs. And we didn’t make it. But it felt like because of that experience, because every game had that kind of meaning for a young player, it felt like we’d been together through a lot of playoff games. And it was because of that approach for him and having things matter, and having there be a consequence. I think that’s really important in this league.”
Green said the 76ers’ experience is one that has become all too familiar amid the NBA’s attempt to play through the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been wild,” he said. “It’s been a whirlwind for not just us, but the league, a lot of teams — injuries, COVID, games have been postponed.”
With no team immune. “You know there’s going to be some crazy things happening with this COVID or injuries,” he said.
With Harris, Thybulle and Milton back, the 76ers, unlike their Thursday night opponent, got back to something closer to normalcy.
“It was good to see guys’ faces again, have them around,” Green said of the morning shootaround at the team’s Camden, N.J., practice facility. “It’s been tough, a heavy load to carry and guys were playing out of position.”
Of his team’s whirlwind week, Spoelstra said it was another challenge.
“Everybody is going through something,” he said. “If we’re trying to compare it to what a normal NBA season was like then I think you’re going down the wrong rabbit hole. You’re just trying to keep everybody safe, continue to try to educate everybody on the protocols, the updates to those, where we can all be better for each other to keep this thing going and then to prepare your team to get better. Take steps forward regardless of who is here or not.
“It is interesting, though, from this road trip. When we took off to get ready to go to Washington, it does feel like a long time ago, even though it was less than a week ago.”
Donation made
The Heat on Thursday announced a $1 million donation from the team and the Micky & Madeleine Arison Family Foundation to Direct Relief’s Health Equity Fund, to expand the organization’s work toward health equity.
Direct Relief is a humanitarian-aid organization “with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies — without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.”
The Heat cited the move as their next step to deliver on their social-justice pledge “and effect positive change that uplifts the Black community.”