Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Adebayo, Lowry push through ailments
MIAMI — The worst-case scenario turned into a no-case scenario Friday night for the Miami Heat.
The Heat’s equation appeared to become a bit more complex Friday when center Bam Adebayo was downgraded from probable to questionable on the team’s afternoon injury report ahead of the game against the Charlotte Hornets at FTX Arena.
Adebayo, coming off a 24-point, nine-rebound game in Wednesday night’s victory over the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center, was listed with a bruised left knee.
However, coach Erik Spoelstra, in his pregame media session 90 minutes before tipoff, said Adebayo was good to go on the night the Heat raised his Olympic gold-medal banner to the rafters.
The Heat also had continued throughout the day to report point guard Kyle Lowry as probable, listing him with bursitis in his right elbow, with the elbow visibly swollen in a wake of his nine-assist performance in the victory in Brooklyn.
As with Adebayo, Spoelstra said pregame that the veteran point guard was cleared to play.
The Heat remain without guard Victor Oladipo, who is recovering from May quadriceps surgery, with undrafted rookie guard Marcus Garrett on assignment with the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
As for Charlotte, on G League assignment for the Hornets and missing the game were former University School standout Vernon Carey, former Florida guard Scottie Lewis, as well as JT Thor and Arnoldas Kulboka.
Spoelstra declined to tip his hand when it comes to Saturday’s second game of the back-to-back set against the Grizzlies.
“We’ll see what happens when we get to Memphis,” he said.
Banner moment
Spoelstra said the halftime ceremony honoring Adebayo for his role in Team USA bringing back gold from the Tokyo Olympics was another confirmation of the growth of his center.
“It was an incredible accomplishment,” Spoelstra said, “and thinking about where he’s come from and his journey to get to that point, to be in a position to help the Olympic U.S. team win a gold, that’s really amazing.
“Bam is a student of the game, but also Miami Heat history. So he’s seen the banners go up and that means something to him.”
Backup plan
Speaking of Heat big men, Spoelstra took time pregame to praise the play of backup center Dewayne Dedmon.
“It takes a unique kind of personality and professional to be able to embrace that kind of role,” Spoelstra said. “You’re talking about 15 to 18 minutes of just bottled-up energy, toughness, physicality, emotion, passion, all of that. And he’s accepted this role and he’s really excelled at this role. And we think he fits in really well.
“He’s a great complement to Bam. He’s something that’s similar in terms of the physicality, but it’s different in the way he does it. It’s just a big-time credit to his professionalism and his character.”
Winning pedigree
Adebayo said among the reasons the revamped Heat have been able to coalesce has been the playoff pedigree of the roster, with Lowry, Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker arriving with championship rings, and with himself, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson having been part of the Heat’s run to the 2020 NBA Finals.
“We’ve got a team with a lot of guys that have won, that have had that experience of getting that championship, so we know what it takes,” he said.
“My previous years, we haven’t had more than two guys. On this team, we have Kyle, who has won, we have P.J., who just won one, we’ve got ’Kief. You got UD, me, Jimmy, Duncan, Tyler have all been in the Finals. So it’s a lot of guys who know what it takes to get there.”