South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Ailing Winslow, McGruder wind up missing entire road trip
WASHINGTON — Justise Winslow and Rodney McGruder took to the road with the Miami Heat for the four-game trip that ended Saturday night against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena. They just never made it to the court.
The next action for the duo will come, at the earliest, Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Orlando Magic.
Winslow has now missed five consecutive games, out with a bruised right thigh sustained in the March 15 loss to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks. McGruder has missed the past four games with a sore left knee.
“Look,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “injuries are a part of the game. And league-wide, every roster is dealing with a lot of that, either because of load management, sitting people out, or injuries or things of that nature. There’s probably as many fluctuation with rotations around the league as there probably have ever been.”
The upshot of the injuries has been a role in the starting lineup for Derrick Jones Jr., a return to the rotation for James Johnson, and more time as a playmaker for Goran Dragic.
The Heat also remain without forward Yante Maten and guard Charles Cooke, with have been with the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Justise Winslow remains out of uniform. He has missed five consecutive games, out with a bruised right thigh sustained March 15 against the Bucks.
The Skyforce’s season concludes Saturday.
Cooke is on a 10-day contract that expires Sunday, which also is the day the limitation expires on the days in the NBA allowed for Maten and Duncan Robinson, the Heat players on two-way contracts.
Spoelstra said what you won’t be seeing from the Heat the rest of the way is that “load management,” saying if Dwyane Wade can push through, then everyone can push through.
“Wouldn’t even consider
it,” he said. “The only guy would be a 37 year old. And since we have 10 games left, what are we saving him for.”
Two for one: With Friday the Heat’s final visit of the season to Milwaukee, Wade made it a two-for-one postgame jersey swap with the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
“Big moment for me,” Antetokounmpo said. “Had a chance to talk to him a little bit, thank him for everything he did for the
game: Hall of Famer, threetime champ, one of the best players to ever play the game. Him giving me his jersey and me giving my jersey, it’s big.
“After basketball, you’re always going to remember those moments and you can tell stories to your kids about moments like this.”
Middleton was equally touched.
“One of my favorite players growing up, still one of my favorite players to this day. So it was cool to be in a jersey swap,” he said.
“He’s definitely a mentor, somebody I watched from afar. Not too many conversations with him, but the ones that I did meant a lot to me.”
Close connection: Then there is Wizards center Thomas Bryant, who played at Indiana under Tom Crean, who coached Wade at Marquette. That led to a connection between the two, as well as Wade’s oldest son.
“I’m really close to his son Zaire and I worked out
with him in LA a couple of times with coach Crean,” Bryant told NBCSports Washington. “I talked to him a couple of times and tried to catch up with him. Just seeing the legacy he’s built up in this league and just for him to play as hard as he does, even in this last year, is amazing.”