Lowry iffy for Game 5, but ‘My goal is to be out there’
The availability — let alone the effectiveness — of Kyle Lowry remained in question on Monday evening, with the Heat listing the veteran point guard as questionable for Tuesday’s Game 5 of its second-round playoff series against Philadelphia at FTX Arena (7:30 p.m., TNT).
Lowry — still dealing with a hamstring injury sustained in the Atlanta series — limped and winced through 30 minutes of Sunday’s loss, finishing with six points on 3-of-10 shooting, with seven assists and four turnovers. He sat for the final 9:42 of Game 4, though he was available to play.
Neither team made anyone available to the media on Monday, but Lowry said late Sunday night: “My goal is to be out there [for Game 5]. We’ll see what happens and how I respond to treatment.
“But the goal is to always be out there playing with my teammates. This is tough timing for a hamstring. I’ve never had a soft tissue [injury]. But the goal is to be out there. So if you’re asking if I’m going to try to play. Yes, I’m going to try to play Game 5.”
Lowry wasn’t effective in the two games in Philadelphia, shooting 3 for 14. During the playoffs, he’s averaging 6.2 points on 29.7 percent shooting and 20.3 percent on threepointers. He has missed 17 of his past 20 threes.
Asked if he was concerned about Lowry’s status, Jimmy Butler said, “Not very, and very at the same time. Just because that’s my guy, that’s my point guard…. I want Kyle Lowry on the floor. But if he can’t go, it’s big shoes to fill, but somebody’s got to do it.”
Meanwhile, center
Dwayne Dedmon — who missed Sunday’s Game 4 with a head cold — was also listed as questionable for Game 5. Erik Spoelstra said Dedmon would have played if he had been available Sunday.
Also listed as questionable for Game 5: Tyler Herro (left ankle sprain),
Caleb Martin (left ankle sprain), Max Strus (right hamstring strain), P.J. Tucker (right calf strain) and Gabe Vincent (right knee irritation). Most Heat players who have been listed as questionable have
played in the next game, with Dedmon a rare exception.
CHANGE FOR STRUS
Strus is averaging just 7.3 points on 9 for 29 threepoint shooting in this series (31 percent) after averaging 10.6 points on 41 percent three-point shooting in the regular season and 14 points and 35.5 percent on threes in the first round against Atlanta.
But here’s the biggest change with Strus: He has virtually eliminated twopoint shots from his arsenal in this round.
Of his 30 shot attempts, 29 have been threes. During the season, 29 percent of Strus’ shot attempts were twos, and many were high percentage shots resulting from sharp cuts to the basket.
In fact, Strus is a career 64 percent shooter on two pointers. He made an incredible 35 of 39 two-point attempts in the 2020-21 season.
“I’ve got to get better overall, make better reads and make the right play all the time,” Strus said. “Making the right play to help our team win every single time.”
He said those cuts that produced many of his 78 two-point baskets this season are still available in the offense in this series, but simply aren’t materializing.
“We haven’t changed much,” he said. “I’m going to read the defense and take what they give me.”
THIS AND THAT
Despite the two losses in Philadelphia, Butler said: “I like our chances.”
What concerns him is that the Heat defense regresses when Miami isn’t
making shots.
“A lot of it comes down to us making shots,” he said. “When we make shots, we tend to play defense. If we don’t, then we don’t. So we’ve got to get back to being a defensive minded team and letting our offense come to us second.”
Butler is averaging 29 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists and shooting 53 percent during these playoffs.
He now has more 40point playoff games for the Heat in three years than LeBron James had in four postseasons for Miami. Butler has four such games; James had three.
“I moved him to second all time at Marquette,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said of his fellow Marquette alum. “I moved him ahead of me. I’m joking. He frustrated me [in Game 4]. He made everything. He scored on everyone.”
76ers center Joel Embiid said Butler’s 40-point performance in Game 4 is “on me. In the second half, I wasn’t as dominant defensively as I was in the first. Next game, I’m definitely going to be better. We’re making it too easy for him.”
Rivers assured reporters that we haven’t yet seen the best of Embiid, who is playing with a mask to protect an orbital fracture. He scored 15 of his 24 points in the first quarter of Game 4, his second game since returning from the injury.
“I don’t think we did a great job feeding Joel in his spots [in Game 4],” Rivers said. “He’s fighting too much to get open. His defense, his presence, his scoring, he does everything for us. We haven’t
seen the best of Joel in this series. He’s still trying to figure out how to play with his mask.”
Asked how the 76ers can carry their momentum to Miami, where they lost the first two games, Rivers cracked: “Joel is going to be able to play. I’m just saying. Game 5 is going to be a lot of fun.”
James Harden, who scored 16 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4, spoke of a team whose confidence is growing, after Embiid missed the first two games (Heat wins) in Miami.
“We still had confidence going into Game 3, knowing we can beat these guys,” Harden said. “Bringing Joel back was the X factor. We’re still a fairly new team, less than two months in.
We found something [Sunday that]... we can capitalize on. We’re getting more confidence as the series goes on.”
Phoenix Suns guard
Devin Booker broke the news via Twitter on Monday afternoon that Phoenix’s Monty Williams was voted the NBA’s Coach of the Year. The NBA made it official a few hours later.
Spoelstra was one of three finalists for the honor, along with Memphis’ Taylor Jenkins and Williams.
Game 6 was set for 7 p.m. Thursday in Philadelphia, on TNT.