The Miami Heat’s injury issues have been bad this season. How bad?
Heat captain Udonis Haslem is in his 20th NBA season and doesn’t recall going through one with this many injuries.
“I can’t remember it being this bad,” Haslem said. “But it is what it is.”
The Heat entered Tuesday with the second-most missed games in the NBA (190 missed games) this season due to injury, according to Spotrac. Only the Orlando Magic have more missed games because of injuries.
Those missed games have certainly been a factor in the Heat’s up-and-down season so far, entering Tuesday with a 24-21 record through the first 45 games and in seventh place in the Eastern Conference after closing last regular season as the East’s top playoff seed.
“It’s just the reality of it,” Haslem said, with the Heat continuing its three-game trip on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “It’s not an excuse. It’s not an explanation. It’s just the reality of it. To win games in this league, especially trying to win a championship, which is what we shoot for every year, you got to have health. That’s just the reality of it. It’s not an excuse. We don’t talk about it in the media. It’s nothing we’ve brought up. But the reality is you need to be healthy, everybody knows that.”
And the Heat has been far from healthy this season:
— Starting center Bam Adebayo has missed five games.
— Starting wing Jimmy Butler has missed 14 games.
— Starting guard Tyler Herro has missed 12 games.
— Starting guard Kyle Lowry has missed nine games.
— Starting forward Caleb Martin has missed 10 games.
— Sixth man Victor Oladipo has missed 26 games.
— Forward Duncan Robinson has missed 12 games.
— Guard Gabe Vincent has missed 12 games.
— Center Omer Yurtseven has yet to be available for a game this season.
“It’s just part of the game, part of the job,” Haslem continued. “It’s a different era, obviously. A little less inclined to play through injuries than they were at one point. So obviously, safety, the science is different, so guys are really taking the liberty to make sure that they’re OK. It’s not just about short-term, it’s also about long-term as well. So you got to understand that, you got to respect that. This is part of it and this is part of what the NBA is now.”
It’s hard to diagnose the reason behind the Heat’s rash of injuries, considering that young players such as the 22-year-old Herro, 24-year-old Yurtseven, 26-year-old Vincent and 27-year-old Martin have been among those who have missed the most games this season.
“Sometimes it’s just the timing of stuff,” Martin said when asked how he would explain the Heat’s injury problems. “Sometimes you just can’t help what guys are going through. We had a long season last year, so some guys probably haven’t completely healed from that. Quick turnaround and overall, man, guys play so hard that it’s just bound to happen with knickknack stuff.
“I don’t think we’ve had anything serious besides Duncan and Omer, obviously. But besides those two, we just kind of had guys who probably burnt themselves out, have been dealing with some stuff and it’s probably more bad luck than anything.”
That bad luck has already forced the Heat to use 19 different starting lineups this season, which is the third most among NBA teams behind only the Los Angeles Lakers (24) and Oklahoma City Thunder (20). The Heat’s preferred starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Martin and Adebayo has been limited to opening just 14 of the first 45 games.
Those moving parts have helped lead to the Heat’s inconsistent play this season, which has included losses to some of the NBA’s worst teams like the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs but also a road win over the league-leading Boston Celtics.
“The only way you’re going to build the best chemistry is if you’re consistently playing with each other and logging those minutes with those lineups,” Martin said. “But teams ain’t going to wait up. So it doesn’t really matter what it is. You can’t use it for an excuse. It just is what it is and you just got to figure it out and keep going.”
The good news is the Heat welcomed back two starters from injury in Monday’s loss to the Hawks. Both Herro and Martin were back in their usual starting spots for Miami in Atlanta after missing time with injuries, as Herro missed the previous three games with left Achilles soreness and Martin missed the previous five games with a left quadriceps strain.
“It’s a long season. It’s up and down,” Adebayo said. “For us, it’s just getting guys healthy and happy to have T and Caleb back, so now we can get into a sort of a normal rhythm again.”
The expectation is that Lowry will also soon return after missing the last four games with left knee discomfort, which would allow the Heat to use its preferred starting lineup for the first time since a Jan. 4 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Lowry has been upgraded to questionable for Wednesday’s game in New Orleans.
But the Heat is expected to remain without Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Robinson (finger surgery) and Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) for at least the rest of the month. Along with Jovic, Robinson and Yurtseven, the Heat also ruled out forward Jamal Cain for Wednesday’s matchup against the Pelicans because he’s in the G League as part of his two-way contract.
“You saw last year what we were able to do when guys were out, but this year it’s just been overwhelming,” Haslem said. “But we’re still very capable of winning basketball games. We’ve been right there. So many games coming down to the last shot even with a decimated roster. So sometimes you got to look within the lesson. The lesson is, I think, once we get healthy, we’re building some good habits and we’ll be able to put something together here. You look at how Boston started their first half of the season last year and it was similar. So if we get healthy, I think we’re still capable of putting something together here.”
As it stands now, the Heat has simply been an average team this season. Miami has been outscored by 0.1 points per 100 possessions, which isn’t awful but also isn’t great.
To again become one of the league’s best teams, the Heat needs to get healthy. Players and coaches know that, all while the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline approaches.
“We want all of our guys back,” Butler said. “We want to be able to fire it on all cylinders, with all our guys healthy, back in rhythm, back comfortable. We want Kyle back. We want Tyler back. We want Caleb back. We just want everybody healthy, man. I think whenever we’re healthy, we’re a really good team.”
