Getty Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat who are in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.
The Miami Heat will look to climb higher in the Eastern Conference standings when they kick off a four-game road trip on November 16. Their opponents during that stretch will be the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
All four games are very winnable, but the job will be more difficult as Miami will be without one of their key guards. According to Ira Winderman of the Miami Sun Sentinel, Heat star and reigning Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro will not travel with the team because of an ankle injury.
Tyler Herro (ankle) not traveling with Heat. Also. It traveling is Udonis Haslem, for personal reasons.
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Suns Coach Monty Williams Sounds off on Loss to Heat
The Heat had perhaps their most impressive win of the season in their last game against the Phoenix Suns. The win put them at the .500 mark for the first time this season.
Heat star Jimmy Butler’s clutch block ultimately sealed the game, but one of the underlying factors was the free-throw discrepancies between the two teams. The Suns shot just four free throws in comparison to the 25 attempts taken by Miami.
While basketball isn’t a game of could a, would a, should a the large gap in free throws is hard to ignore. Suns head coach Monty Williams says it’s a stat that is “hard to swallow”.
“It’s just one of those things when you look at the stat sheet, you look at situations like that, and we only end up with four free throws for the game. That is hard to swallow,” Suns coach Monty Williams said after the win via the Miami Herald.
“I think it’s the second-lowest free-throw total we’ve ever had in franchise history. In a physical game like that, where everybody is bumping, we only get four free throws. This is becoming really hard to swallow, and you feel like you can’t even talk about it because you’re going to get fined.”
Heat Linked To Potential Julius Randle Trade
With the Heat sitting in 10th place in an Eastern Conference loaded with talent and one of their best players scheduled to miss an extended period, now may be the time for Pat Riley and Miami’s front office to start mulling over the idea of a trade.
One Eastern Conference executive told Heavy NBA Insider Sean Deveney that a player who could be made available to Miami is New York Knicks star, Julius Randle.
“Miami is probably the big team that will be looking for a power forward and [Julius Randle] would at least be interesting there with Bam (Adebayo) and Jimmy Butler. They’d have to make up for him on the defensive end, but they are good at scheming that way and they’ve been really bad on the offensive end,” the executive said to Deveney.
“The Knicks would have to take back (Duncan) Robinson and a couple of their young guys like (Omer) Yurtseven and (Nikola Jovic), something like that. The Knicks would have to trust Obi (Toppin) to take that spot, too. You could make it work, but it might not be the best thing for either side, really.”
The Heat kick off their four-game trip against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.