Miami Heat Still Having Issues Playing Without Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo
The Miami Heat received some good news when forward Jimmy Butler returned to the lineup for Monday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The feeling quickly turned sour when Butler aggravated the injury after a fall in the first quarter and never returned.
“I don’t have an update," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He is very sore. On the fifth play of the game, he drew contact and got shoved and landed on his tailbone again. I don’t think it could’ve been a worse scenario to start the game. He had really been preparing this past week. It’s a contact sport, it is a unpredictable thing. Insult to injury, we didn’t get the call on that either. But he definitely reaggravated it and you can tell from that point on he wasn’t his usual self. So we will reevaluate tomorrow and see where we are.”
The Heat have been without Butler the past two weeks and are also dealing with center Bam Adebayo being sidelined for six weeks because of thumb surgery. Playing without arguably their top two starters hasn't been easy. Here's what teammates are saying about the challenge:
Guard Kyle Lowry: “It’s not hard. Guys are professionals. We aren’t going to be extreme but without Bam and Jimmy, there will probably be more possession basketball for us, a lot more of putting the ball in the right guy’s hand at the right time and slowing it down a little bit more maybe. I’m still in the flux of trying to figure out if I need to shoot more, shoot more, or shoot more. I’m in the situation where I want to continue to make my teammates better and my team better."
Guard Tyler Herro: “Obviously those are two guys that help us get settled, especially in the beginning of the game. We can throw the ball to either one of them and they create most of the action and offense for us. Without those two, the first unit is really just Kyle creating. We need to continue to work through these problems. Find solutions and we’ll be all right.”
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