Another injury has McRoberts out indefinitely
MIAMI — Heat power forward Josh McRoberts has two words to describe his latest setback.
“Disappointing, frustrating,” McRoberts said before Miami’s game Tuesday night against Oklahoma City.
McRoberts is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his left foot, but he “definitely” plans on playing again at some point this season. Derrick Williams started in place of McRoberts.
Since McRoberts signed with the Heat in the summer of 2014, it’s been a struggle for him to stay healthy. He’s already missed 95 games because of various injuries — like a torn meniscus that forced him to miss most of the 2014-15 season — since joining Miami, and that’s before this latest setback.
“I wish I had a good quote to say to help other peo - ple through tough times,” McRoberts said when asked about staying patient despite another injury. “But I think that’s part of it, just to keep it in perspective.
“It could be a whole lot worse. It’s an injury and it’s a setback. It’s never a good thing and it’s always frustrating and it’s always disappointing, but you try to stay as strong as you c an and get through it and try to put things in perspective.”
McRoberts said he believes he suffered the injury “a couple weeks back” and he tried to play through it. But the pain kept getting worse, which led to the diagnosis.
“I obviously didn’t know the extent,” McRoberts said. “You feel it. But you just kind of hope it’s general soreness and it goes away. I’ve been feeling it for a couple weeks and I finally took a look at it and it was bad news.”
McRoberts’ injury is similar to the one he dealt with earlier this year. He missed training camp, the preseason and the Heat’s first seven games of the regular season as he recovered from a stress reaction that stemmed from a broken left foot he suffered in the playoffs last season.
Even though this is McRoberts’ second left foot injury over the past eight months, the Heat and McRoberts don’t believe this is a career-threatening issue.
“We don’t feel like it will,” coach Erik Spoelstra said when a s ke d i f h e ’s worried the left foot issues will impact McRoberts’ career. “But we’re going to use all of our resources, put our minds together and come up with a solution with him to get him back out on the court and feeling healthy and good.
“We haven’t been able to do that right now, but we feel confident we’ll be able to find a solution.”
McRoberts started as the Heat’s power for ward in each of the past 14 games entering Tuesday’s game. He averaged 6.4 points on 41.9 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from 3-point range to go with 3.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists during that stretch.
McRoberts is due $5.8 million this season and his contract includes a player option worth $6 million for the 201718 season.
If the Heat were to cut Mc Ro b e r t s t h i s s e a s o n , they automatically would be responsible for his entire 2017-18 season salary counting against their cap.
“I feel for Josh right now,” Spoelstra said. “He wants to be out there and he was starting to get into a great rhythm. We’ll use all of our resources to come up with a solution for him.”
Dragic out: The Heat were without leading scorer and di s t r i b ut o r, poi nt g u a rd Goran Dragic, for Tuesday’s game.
Dra g i c , ave r a g i ng 1 9. 3 points and 6.6 assi sts, i s dealing with back spasms that began in the first quarter of the Heat’s loss in New Orleans on Friday.
As a result , coach Erik Spoelstra will trot out his 11th different starting lineup against the Thunder as Miami now has lost 126 games to illness or injury.
Guard Rodney McGruder and forward Derrick Williams return to the starting lineup, joining Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and Hassan Whiteside. Spoelstra once again has opted to keep his best two reserves — Tyler Johnson and James Johnson — coming off the bench.
“I don’t know if I want to disrupt the bench and what they’ve been doing,” he said. “But one of these days I might have to.” their bench, with James Johnson scoring 16 points and Tyler Johnson adding 15. But it wasn’t enough.
Our five takeaways from the game:
Crowd-pleaser: A sizable crowd came out Tuesday, and it’s safe to say it wasn’t to see the Heat. Entertainer Chris Rock and Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi were among those attending the Russell Westbrook Show, and they were not disappointed. Westbrook, who is averaging a triple-double, had 12 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the first half. His triple-double was secured with 6:39 left in the third quarter, his 51st of his career and 20th through three quarters. He now has just three fewer triple-doubles than the rest of the NBA.
“From my perspective, some of the most impressive plays he made were diving in front of our bench,” Spoelstra said. “The charge at the end, when they were up 12, he’s competing to the end. Great, great lesson for our guys.”
A n o t h e r W h i t e s i d e washout: Hassan Whiteside had another game in which he was a no-show early, especially after picking up three fouls in a four-minute span of the second quarter and No. 4 early in the third quarter. In the first half, Whiteside had one more foul (three) and as many turnovers (two) as he had rebounds. Spoelstra pulled him with 8:05 remaining in the third quarter. He returned at the start of the fourth quarter and somewhat redeemed himself, finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds.
“Today was not a great game for me,” Whiteside said. “Ever y game i s not going to be a great game. I missed a lot of shots I normally make. They did a good job of boxing me out.”
Spoelstra danced around questions about Whiteside. Asked if he was happy with Whiteside’s effort, he said: “I thought in the fourth quarter he was making better impact plays and not all of them are successful,” he said. “You could feel his presence more in that fourth quarter.”
Breaking out of his slump: Richardson made his 14th start, moving to point guard for the injured Dragic. The second-year player finished with 22 points, five rebounds and three assists. He shot 9 of 16, snapping a five - game s l u mp i n wh i c h h e wa s shooting just .264 (14 of 53) and .160 (4 of 25) on 3-point attempts. He also had the unenviable task of guarding Westbrook.
“I just felt good on the court ,” Richardson said. “I thought I was attacking more.” When asked about Westbrook, Richardson said: “He’s having a historic season. You’ve got to try to contain him as best you can.”
Another slow start: The Heat were in the game for the first eight minutes, then it all fell apart. Oklahoma City ended the first quarter on a 15-3 run, much of it with Westbrook on the bench, and then stretched the lead to 22 points through the second quarter as the Thunder were shooting 59 percent and outrebounding the Heat 19-9. The Heat trailed 61-48 at the half and never got the deficit into single digits in the second half.
“We’ve got to come out with more urgency,” Richardson said.
The hits keep coming: The Heat were without point guard and leading scorer Dragic, day-to-day with back spasms, and power forward McRoberts, out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his foot. Miami players have missed a total of 126 games with injuries. As a result, Spoelstra started his 11th lineup of the season.
“It’s tough,” Richardson said. “We’ve had guys out. You see your brothers go down. We’ve been shorthanded e ve r y g a me t hi s year. You’ve got to persevere through it.”