After the Miami Heat got a huge 115-113 win over the New York Knicks on Monday night, their sights are now set on Wednesday night when Jimmy Butler returns with the Golden State Warriors for a matchup. However, with Heat captain Bam Adebayo dealing with a toe injury, he would get a huge update ahead of the highly anticipated game.
Miami would have practice on Tuesday and have upgraded Adebayo to “questionable” for tomorrow with the toe sprain, but the big man himself would say he is “optimistic” that he will return to play against Golden State, according to Anthony Chiang. There's no doubt that Adebayo felt he could've returned sooner, but that could just be the competitive nature he has, and the training staff and coaches “save me from myself in a sense.”
“You see both sides,” Adebayo said, according to The Sun Sentinel. “Some of it, obviously, you feel like you can help. And then the other side, you want to be fully healthy, so it doesn’t come back. So you toggle that line.”
“And that’s when you turn to the head coach and the training staff,” Adebayo continued. “Because they both know I’ll go out there and play regardless. So they got to save me from myself in a sense. So it’s been a hard two weeks.”
Heat's Bam Adebayo makes second straight practice since toe injury
As the Heat are getting positive injury news on Tyler Herro and Adebayo, the former is still out, though he is progressing, saying Sunday that he expects to return in one to two weeks. For Adebayo, his presence has been missed, making his second straight practice appearance, as he's missed the last six games of the season.
“He’s had two good practices in a row. There’s stuff behind the scenes. He’s really been putting in the time, the treatment, the active work,” Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I think it’s been a responsible plan, and then we’ll see what the trainers say in the next 24 hours.”
If there are a few areas that Miami has seen a dip in without Adebayo, it's his rebounding and elite defense, which Spoelstra mentioned since he's “one of the very best two-way players in the game.”
“I mean that shouldn’t be a wonder to people out there,” Spoelstra said. “You’re talking about one of the very best two-way players in the game. He’s going to make an impact, and all these things that he does are things that impact winning.”
At any rate, it remains to be seen if Adebayo is further upgraded to being available for the upcoming contest, but the Heat look to stack wins as the team is 8-6, facing Butler and the Warriors on Wednesday.
