As the Miami Heat looks for their second straight win against the Indiana Pacers, they are going to be without arguably their best performing player so far this season. Star Bam Adebayo will be out for Saturday's game with a hip injury according to the team's X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
Adebayo played only 12 minutes before he banged his hip in the first half, which prompted him to not return for the rest of the game. The Heat's big-man has already missed time this season because of a hip contusion as to see it be re-injured in the same area is a concerning sign.
Heat's Erik Spoelstra recalls conversation with Adebayo Thursday
Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke after the game to explain what happened to Adebayo. He would recall a conversation between himself and Adebayo telling him he's not coming back in the game as the team needs him for the future.
“He came in those last four minutes of the second quarter and he was just getting some treatment at halftime with the intention to come back,” Spoelstra said to the media after the win. “I basically talked to him in my office and just said, ‘Look, you’re laboring like the fourth quarter of the New York game and it’s November right now. I’m not putting you back in in the second half. I’m taking this decision out of your hands.’ I didn’t even talk to the trainers at that point.”
On the bright side, the Heat won the game against the high-powered Pacers Thursday, 142-132, but they'll have to recreate that magic again Saturday. Another positive note from Spoelstra is that he downplayed the injury saying it's not “serious.”
“It’s not, thankfully, something serious,” Spoelstra said. “It’s just you play competitive NBA basketball, you get hit, you’re jumping and you’re twisting, all that stuff. He heals fast, so we’ll continue to treat him and see where we are.”
Adebayo was in the midst of a career-best season where coming into Thursday's game, he was averaging around 23 points and 10 rebounds per game. Players on Miami that should be receiving extra minutes in place for the injured Adebayo will be Kevin Love, Thomas Bryant, and Orlando Robinson.
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