After the Miami Heat got back Bam Adebayo from injury in the win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, having missed the six games prior with a toe injury, the team is dealing with more injuries for its two-game road trip. As the Heat's win over the Warriors sparked reactions dealing with Jimmy Butler, the team is moving on to winning more games, though the recent injuries provide a roadblock, such as with Andrew Wiggins.
The day after Wiggins faced off against his former team and played 34 minutes, while recording 17 points, six rebounds, two steals, one assist, and a block, his presence showed up unexpectedly on the injury report with a “left hip flexor strain.”
ClutchPoints would learn that, besides being ruled out for Friday's tilt against the Chicago Bulls, he didn't travel with the team for the contest, along with Tyler Herro and Nikola Jovic.
Plus, Wiggins and the others are “not expected” to join Miami on the trip, putting his status for Sunday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers also in jeopardy. However, head coach Erik Spoelstra would ease the concerns, saying that the team is “encouraged by the prognosis” and he will be considered “day-to-day.”
“It just got really tight the latter part of the fourth quarter. He's day-to-day,” Spoelstra said, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “He also wasn't feeling well that whole game. So that might have had an effect a little bit. But overall, we're encouraged by the prognosis on it.”
Andrew Wiggins' impact with the Heat, plus other injuries
Wiggins is in the midst of a productive season for the Heat, serving as the perfect complement offensively and defensively to such players as Norman Powell, Bam Adebayo, and others. He's averaging 16.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from deep.
Jovic's injury is labeled as a “right hip impingement,” which kept him out in the victory over the Warriors, as he'll miss his second straight game on Friday. As for Herro, he returned to practice last Sunday, saying that it will be a week or two more before his return from ankle surgery, with all eyes set on Monday's home contest against the Dallas Mavericks to make his season debut.
