Injury-riddled Miami Heat set for tournament game vs. Bucks
MIAMI — The Heat go into their final game of pool play in the NBA In-Season Tournament needing to win with a short-handed roster.
Heat guard Tyler Herro (ankle) and R.J. Hampton (knee) remain out for Tuesday night’s game against Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks, and star Jimmy Butler (ankle) did not practice on Monday.
However, there are some reinforcements on the way Tuesday night. Center Bam Adebayo (hip) and wing Duncan Robinson (thumb) were full participants in practice, while forward Haywood Highsmith was a partial participant.
Miami will need help to win its group in pool play. If it wins and Charlotte beats New York, then the Heat win the group outright. If the Knicks win, the group will be decided by point differential. The Heat would need to beat Milwaukee by 15 and win by eight more points than what the Knicks’ margin of victory would be over the Hornets.
There are several other scenarios where the Heat could advance as a wild card.
“Everybody has a better understanding of it,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Kyle (Lowry has) been educating everybody on what the point differentials are. We’ll just focus on trying to get a W tomorrow. No. 1, that’s the most important thing. We know what the differential has to be. You can’t go into a game thinking that. That’s not how you win games against good teams.”
As the league makes its way through the inaugural in-season tournament, it has garnered at least one fan in South Florida.
“We like it,” Spoelstra said. “I think it’s interesting. I think the competition went up each game, and that’s good for the league.”
The following scenarios are applicable for the final day of Group Play games on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/acGn0VITSM— NBA Communications November 25, 2023
Jovic clears up statements to Serbian media
After a report in a Serbian media outlet said Heat second-year forward Nikola Jovic was unhappy with how the Heat were using him, the young forward cleared up his comments on Monday.
“I said a couple of those things in a different way,” Jovic said, “so I’m going to say it again in English so you guys don’t need to translate it ... Basically, what I said is this team is playing great without me and minute-wise, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and this team’s playing great, so there’s no point of playing me right now. I get it. I get it. I totally get it.
That was the first thing. The second thing I said is I was talking about the G-League. G-League, playing right, we don’t have a five, so I’m playing the five. Sometimes it’s not easy to play the things that you’re not really good at. If I was playing a four, I would probably be a lot better. That’s basically it.”
Asked if he was upset with his playing time with the Heat or his role.
“Of course, I want to play,” Jovic said. “Obviously, I will help this team as much as I can. But this team is playing great. Before the injuries, we were like top-three in the East, and we should be there. Guys without me are playing unbelievably good, and I’ll support them like last year.”
Jovic said he planned to talk to the Heat coaching staff and say he was taken out of context and that he felt bad for how the situation played out.
“I would never disrespect anyone like that. If I ever had a problem with anyone, I would talk to them personally. I would never go in the media and say something like that. I just want to make it clear because yesterday I woke up, my phone was blowing up. I don’t want that to happen again.”
