The Miami Heat will be without the services of All-Star center Hassan Whiteside for Friday night's game against the Phoenix Suns due to the birth of his first child, according to a report from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Hassan Whiteside and Wayne Ellington are not traveling with the Heat due to personal reasons, Whiteside for the birth of his first child. Dion Waiters also is not traveling, but Goran Dragic (knee) is.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) December 6, 2018
Whiteside, who is not travelling with the team, is expected to rejoin the Heat at some point during their six-game road trip. Whether or not he'll be available for Saturday's game against the Clippers is still unknown.
With Whiteside ruled out for Friday's game in Phoenix, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will likely give Bam Adebayo and Kelly Olynyk bit more playing time.
In his 22 appearances with the Heat this season (all starts), Whiteside has racked up averages of 13.5 points on 52.3 percent shooting from the field, 13.7 rebounds and a whopping 2.9 blocks in 26.9 minutes per outing (per Basketball Reference). Needless to say, Miami will miss Whiteside's presence on the defensive end of the floor, as he's been of the league's most dominant interior defenders since signing with the Heat in 2014
Though he's a monster on the glass, Whiteside has been struggling with free-throws as of late. In fact, he's posted a 4-for-28 mark (14.3 percent) from the charity stripe over the last six-plus games. He left for the locker room with 40.5 seconds remaining in Tuesday's game after going 0-for-2 from the line.
“Probably extremely upset, like we all are right now,” Spoelstra told reporters after his team dropped to 9-14.
Heat guard Dwyane Wade says the issue wasn't missed free-throws, though. He felt the offense “just stunk” in general.
“I thought our offense just stunk tonight,” Wade said after Tuesday's loss.
Friday night's Heat-Suns matchup is scheduled to tip inside Talking Stick Resort Arena at 9:00 p.m. EST.
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