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The Miami Heat lost a tough game on Tuesday night. They’ll have a day to put that behind them and move on to the Denver Nuggets. More importantly, the team may have survived a pretty big scare involving their best player.
Jimmy Butler twisted his ankle after going up for a jumper and landing awkwardly on Jevon Carter’s foot. He lay on the court wincing in pain and grabbing his foot with about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Rather nonchalantly, he re-tied his shoe and came right back in the game. It looked a lot worse in real-time and Butler will have his ankle checked out tomorrow.
After the game, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was brutally honest when talking about the horrific scene. He thought a flagrant foul should have been called since Butler had every right to be in the lane and hold his ground. If defenders are entitled to their space, then shooters should be able to do the same. Not this time. The whistles remained quiet.
“We obviously had eyes wide open on him with that. It was an unfortunate play, one that should have been called a foul and very likely a flagrant, too — that’s a dangerous play,” Spoelstra told reporters. “So we’ll just have to see how he feels tomorrow.”
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Dewayne Dedmon Waiting to Make Heat Debut
When the Heat signed veteran center Dewayne Dedmon off the street, it was thought he was going to step right into big minutes behind Bam Adebayo. A week later, the 31-year-old is still waiting to make his Miami Heat debut.
Rookie Precious Achiuwa relieved Adebayo during Tuesday’s 106-86 loss to the Phoenix Suns and drew the ire of Heat Nation on social media. He finished with two points in nine minutes for a minus-14 rating.
“They both bring things that we need,” Spoelstra said of Achiuwa and Dedmon, “and a lot depends on the tone of the game and what we feel is best for that moment.”
Dedmon was a “DNP-Coach’s Decision” in the box score once again. Meanwhile, Adebayo struggled to find any kind of rhythm on offense matched up against Suns center DeAndre Ayton who has two inches on him. Spoelstra blamed some of it on the Heat’s spacing but was quick to heap praise on Phoenix’s defensive effort.
“We definitely need to get him the ball in certain spots, in our normal flow,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “But again, they got us out of our normal actions, our normal rhythm. We could have been much better for sure but let’s not discredit the type of defense that they played all year. They’ve been very good at that end of the floor, extremely underrated.”
Next Up, Denver Nuggets
Miami stays on the road for a Wednesday night matchup versus the Denver Nuggets. Remember, the Heat will play eight games in 12 nights, including three back-to-backs. It’s a brutal stretch, one forced on them due to postponed games early in the year. Many of those cancelleations were caused by health and safety protocols stemming from COVID-19.
Luckily, the Heat will be taking on an undermanned Nuggets team after they lost Jamal Murray “indefinitely” to a torn ACL injury. Murray had been averaging 21.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game.
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