Decision to send injured Winslow to see a specialist made by team
The decision to send Justise Winslow home with one game remaining on the Heat’s road trip was made by the team and not the player, the Heat said Sunday before Miami’s game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
A Heat spokesman said the team wanted to get him home sooner so he can see a specialist to get to the bottom of a bone bruise in his back, which had sidelined him for 15 games before he returned for one game last week.
That meeting with a specialist was expected to be conducted this weekend.
“We wanted to get him back and have him visit our medical staff and we’ll have more information when we get back to Miami,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Winslow played 14 minutes against Indiana but then complained of discomfort after the game.
During the game, “he made a movement that brought the pain back,” said teammate Derrick Jones Jr., one of Winslow’s closest friends on the team. “He’s going to shut it down a little bit, but hee’s taking it well. He’s in the right state of mind.”
Jones said: “I don’t think he knew he was going home” until the team informed Winslow, but this was not disciplinary in any way. The Heat merely wanted to accelerate further diagnosis and treatment.
“He was good with it,” Jones said of Winslow leaving teammates with one game left on the road trip. “He’s going home to get better and healthy.”
Winslow has played only 11 games this season in the first year of a three-year, $39 million extension that includes a $13 million team option for 2021-22. If he’s out for another extended period, his trade value would be minimal.
One person close to the situation said pain threshold has been one factor in Winslow’s extended absence, though the Heat now wants to be cautious amid the latest setback.
PLAYOFF POSITION
In recent years, the question for the Heat usually has been how many wins it will take to capture the seventh or eighth seed.
With the franchise’s renaissance, the new question this year is how many wins it will take to get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
And the answer, at the current pace, would be a daunting one: something in mid-50s, or much higher than any Eastern Conference fourth seed has needed this century.
Entering Sunday, the team currently holding the fourth seed in the East (Toronto) was on pace for 54 wins, the team in the fifth spot (Philadelphia) was on pace for 51.3 wins and the team in the sixth seed (Indiana) was on pace for 50.5.
That’s staggering, when you consider this: In the 19 previous seasons this season, the Eastern Conference team that claimed the fourth seed averaged 47 wins, the team in the fifth seed averaged 44.9 wins and the team in the sixth seed averaged 42.7 wins.
So if the top six teams in the East maintain their current pace of winning, the fourth and fifth seeds would need to win seven or so more games than they ordinarily would, this century, to claim those seeds.
After Sunday's loss, the Heat is 27-12 and in third place in the East, on a 57-win pace.
Some more perspective:
With the current fourth seed on pace for 54 wins, consider that only three teams this century did the Eastern fourth seed ever win even 50 games — exactly 50 wins twice and 52 once, by the 2010-11 Magic.
During the years when a division champion was assured a top four seed (which is no longer the case), the fourth seed once had only 39 wins (Boston in 2011-12) and once only 42 wins (the 200304 Heat).
With the current fifth seed on pace for 51.3 wins, consider that an Eastern Conference fifth seed this century has never won 50 games. The highest was 49, by the 2006-07 Bulls.
With the current sixth seed on pace for 50.5 wins, consider that an Eastern Conference sixth seed has never once 49 games or more. One sixth seed won 48 games and two more won
46. Six times, 41 wins has been good enough for a sixth seed, which very likely won’t be the case this season.