Duncan Robinson injured, will see a back specialist
CLEVELAND
Injuries, a concern all season, have become probably the Heat’s biggest issue in the final weeks of the regular season as the team fights to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament.
The Heat entered Monday night’s 98-91 loss at Philadelphia without a chunk of its usual rotation, as Jimmy Butler (right foot contusion), Nikola Jovic (strained right hamstring), Tyler Herro (right foot medial tendintis), Kevin Love (right heel bruise) and Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery) all missed the game.
Then the Heat lost Duncan Robinson midway through the third quarter because of back discomfort, and he didn’t return. And now Robinson is heading back to South Florida to see a back specialist; he’s out for Wednesday’s game in Cleveland and potentially longer.
Meanwhile, Butler and Jovic are questionable for Wednesday’s game at the Cavs (7 p.m. Bally Sports Sun). Herro and Love remain out.
The Heat also has Bam Adebayo playing through a lower back contusion and Caleb Martin playing with a sprained left thumb.
“We always feel like we have enough regardless of who’s in the lineup,” Robinson said. “But, obviously, we haven’t been full strength for a while.”
The Heat opened the trip by defeating Detroit on Friday despite missing Herro, Love and Richardson.
The Heat continued its trip with another win against the Pistons on Sunday, this time without Butler, Jovic, Herro, Love and Richardson.
But the Heat couldn’t overcome those five absences Monday against the 76ers, especially with Robinson clearly not himself in the 24 minutes he played before leaving early with back discomfort. Miami scored just 42 secondhalf points with so much offensive firepower missing.
After scoring a seasonhigh 30 points Sunday in Detroit, Robinson entered Monday’s game on the back end of the backto-back already limited by his back issue.
“He couldn’t move coming into the game,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Just the workload, everything last night, the flight or whatever. He just couldn’t move. But he’s a competitor and he was like whatever we need, I’ll be out there. It was tough.”
Robinson, who has missed just five games because of injuries this season, was clearly bothered by his back Monday. He finished with only three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field and 0-of-1 shooting from three-point range.
“They were playing him physical,” Spoelstra said. “[Nicolas] Batum was being really physical on his off-ball movement. Anybody that has had back spasms, if you can’t move and cut and feel like you can be yourself, it’s a tough thing to manage.”
Robinson noted that he has been dealing with back discomfort “over this last stretch,” but it flared up during the second half of Sunday’s win over the Pistons.
“I just wanted to try to give it a chance,” Robinson said of his decision to play Monday against the 76ers. “Unfortunately, I probably was more of a detriment than anything, which is disappointing.”
Unfortunately for the Heat, Robinson’s injury is the continuation of a season-long trend.
The Heat entered Tuesday with the fourth-most missed games in the league this season due to injuries at 231 games, according to Spotrac’s injury tracker. The only teams with more missed games because of injuries this season are three of the
NBA’s worst teams — Memphis (428 missed games), Portland (250) and Charlotte (243).
Those injuries have forced the Heat to set a franchise record by using 32 different starting lineups this season.
Those injuries are also one of the biggest reasons why the Heat finds itself in play-in tournament territory for the second straight season, sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 14 regularseason games left to play. The Heat has a comfortable 3.5-game lead over the ninth-place Chicago Bulls, but is one-half game behind the seventh-place Indiana Pacers and one game behind the sixthplace 76ers.
The Heat needs to finish with a top-six seed in the East to avoid the play-in tourney, which features the seventh- through 10thplace teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
With Robinson sidelined, the Heat summoned wing Cole Swider from his G-League assignment to join the team in Cleveland.
For summaries, complete standings and results go to the eEdition at MiamiHerald.com.
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