Getty Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra (left) and Kyle Lowry (right)
We still don’t quite know the extent of the ankle injury suffered by point guard Kyle Lowry in the Miami Heat’s ugly loss to the Celtics in the NBA on Thursday, but we do know that there is at least some hope that the ankle is not as badly injured as it first appeared. Lowry is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Jazz in Utah, meaning there is at least a chance he will play.
Considering the way Lowry hopped off the court, on one leg, after turning his left ankle awkwardly when teammate Duncan Robinson fell into him while attempting to take a charge, the fact that it is possible he will play Saturday is an uplifter for the Heat. Lowry suffered the injury in the third quarter, and went to the locker room at the end of the period.
A bad night gets worse for the Heat. Kyle Lowry gets his ankle rolled on and heads right to locker room.
On Thursday, coach Erik Spoelstra said he did not expect much of an update from Lowry, a tough-minded veteran in the mold of fellow Heat star Jimmy Butler.
“I know him well enough to know that he’s very similar to Jimmy,” Spoelstra said. “You ask him how he’s doing, he’s like, ‘Fine.’ But we’ll have to see how it responds.”
Point Guard Depth Is a Problem for the Miami Heat
Lowry’s injury, though, does raise a red flag about one of the weak spots on the Heat roster—depth at point guard. Lowry missed the Heat’s second game of the season, against Indiana, with a similar ankle injury and Miami had no option but to start Gabe Vincent in his place.
Vincent went 1-for-3 shooting with two points, three assists and three turnovers in 24 minutes. Butler spent much of that game as the de facto point guard, dishing out six assists. But the Heat had only 18 assists on the game, well below the team average of 24.0 per game.
Spoelstra does not appear to have much confidence in Vincent. After playing him 37 minutes in the first two games of the season, Spo has had Vincent on the floor for just 12 minutes since. It’s unclear what the Heat would do with the lineup if Lowry is out on Saturday—or, cross your fingers, should Lowry get more significantly hurt.
Lowry, who is averaging 10.0 points and 7.1 assists, has been fairly sturdy in his career, but in his last two seasons in Toronto, he has struggled to stay on the floor, mostly because minor injuries to his back, feet and ankles. He played 46 of 72 games last year and 58 of 72 the previous year. He also missed 15 games the year before that.
Heat Need to Put Thursday Behind Them
With or without Lowry, the Heat will be challenged to put the massacre that was Thursday’s Celtics loss behind them. In a season in which the Heat looked like the best team in the league—remember Tuesday, when Mavs coach Jason Kidd called them that?—this game was their first real stinker.
As Robinson explained, the team needs to learn to bounce back after taking a blow. Doing so against the No. 1 team in the NBA, the 7-1 Jazz, is no easy feat.
“I think any time you get punched in the mouth like that, you got to learn from that,” Robinson said, according to the Miami Herald. “Great teams obviously learn from their wins, as well. And I think we took a lot away from wins. But I think you’re forced to learn a lot from losing, as well. So yeah, we’ll definitely take away a lot from this one.”