The Heat have lost three straight games after dropping a 127-111 contest to the Kings on Saturday. Their short-handedness seemed to fully catch up to them against Sacramento, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell, and Pelle Larsson all missed the game, a tough blow to overcome.
“We didn’t have a lot of juice on either end of the floor,” said head coach Erik Spoelstra.
Chiang adds that the injuries forced the Heat to play their 10th different starting lineup through 24 games.
Also of note was that Spoelstra went away from Kel’el Ware in the second half, choosing instead to start the third quarter with Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“Just looking for some juice, looking for something to kick-start just some energy,” Spoelstra explained. “It didn’t really work out that way. But I don’t know necessarily what would have. It wasn’t an indictment on Kel’el.”
We have more from around the Southeast Division:
- There was good news that came from the Heat on Saturday night, Chiang wrote in the same article: the MRI on Herro’s injured toe showed a simple contusion, which is not expected to be a long-lasting issue. “I just was going to wait until we found out what the deal was,” Spoelstra said when asked if he had been worried about the test. “I try not to stress out about the things that you don’t know about or can’t control.”
- Cam Whitmore didn’t play in the Wizards‘ game on Saturday, which coach Brian Keefe indicated was due to disciplinary issues. Varun Shankar of Post Sports broke down Whitmore’s play late in the previous game against the Celtics (Twitter video link), citing Whitmore not putting in defensive effort or intensity on multiple plays. Shankar notes (via Twitter) that while the Wizards are tanking this season, they have emphasized playing with the proper process.
- The Hornets announced, via Twitter, that Moussa Diabate was downgraded to out with right knee soreness for the Hornets‘ game against the Nuggets on Sunday. He joined a long list of Charlotte players on the injury report, including LaMelo Ball, Pat Connaughton, Josh Green, Tre Mann, Collin Sexton, and Grant Williams. Rod Boone, of the Charlotte Observer, writes that given the physical and mental toll of playing seven games in 12 days while shorthanded, maybe no team in the league is as ready for the upcoming five-day break as the Hornets. “Just use the five days and just focus on the right things,” said Brandon Miller. “Just come back with the mindset of just dominating and then we’ll be fine with that.”