Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Butler’s ankle ‘as good as I’m going to feel right now’
MIAMI — Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler showed he could play through pain with his 27-point performance in Monday night’s road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, but he also recognizes that these final three weeks of the regular season could be a delicate balancing act.
“I know that guys here can hoop,” he said, “they are not going to forgot how to put the ball in the basket or get a stop or dribble overnight, so you don’t want anybody to get injured.
“But some guys like to rest, some guys like to go out there and hoop. I don’t think that either way is a bad way, and that will be between the players and coaches to figure that out.”
And perhaps between Butler and coach Erik Spoelstra as well, with Butler walking with a somewhat gimpy gait after his first game back from a sprained right ankle.
“I’m OK,” he said. “A little bit more rest and recovery coming. But it’s as good as I’m going to feel right now out there. And then I’ve got another day until we play on Wednesday.”
Butler is listed as questionable for Wednesday, due to the ankle sprain.
The Heat were without Gabe Vincent (toe) and Victor Oladipo (back) for Monday night’s game. Wednesday night’s game against the visiting Golden State Warriors opens a run of three games in four nights, with a home back-to-back set against the New York Knicks on Friday night and the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night.
“As long as guys are healthy at the end of the regular season, going into the playoffs, is the most important thing,” point guard Kyle Lowry said.
While Vincent remains out, Oladipo was upgraded to questionable. But Tyler Herro is now listed as questionable due to a left knee sprain. Also questionable is Caleb Martin, with his hyperextended left knee. Away on G League assignments are Kyle Guy and Javonte Smart.
Attack mode
Lowry vowed to move more into attack mode as the playoffs approach and lately that has proven the case, with Lowry 7 of 13 from the field and 6 of 11 on 3-pointers in Monday night’s loss.
“I can always get my guys involved offensively with my passing,” he said, also with six assists against the 76ers. “But for me and us to be successful long term, I understand that it starts at the point of attack. For me, personally, it’s just about getting rhythm and getting to a place where I’m comfortable doing what I need to do and helping my team win games.
“We’ll figure it out as we go. But for me, personally, just try to do whatever it takes to help my team long term.”
Coverage concerns
The 76ers put Monday’s game away by consistently attacking the defense of Herro.
“Tyler, it is what it is,” Lowry said. “We know what the situation is going to be. We know who we’re going to guard and what teams are going at. And Tyler’s going to take the challenge.
“At the end of the day, he’s going to take the challenge as a man to try to man up and we’ll help him as best we can and be in the right spots and help him.”
Center Bam Adebayo said it was a team meltdown.
“They ran the same play for the last four minutes. That’s on us as players to make an adjustment,” he said.
“I feel like we were so locked in on our offense, we weren’t really trying to fix our defense at the time.”
Spoelstra wasn’t playing the blame game.
“Tyler has been one of our better individual defenders during the course of the year, he said.
Dedmon sits
Center Dewayne Dedmon was held out for a second consecutive game Monday, as Spoelstra continued to explore the possibilities with Markieff Morris at center in smallball approach.
“This was more matchup based, and that could change game to game,” Spoelstra said. “We’re so close to the playoffs right now, it’ll eventually become just match-up based. He’ll be ready.”