MIAMI – With the Miami Heat coming off a big win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, the team is preparing for four more games at home entering Sunday night against the Detroit Pistons. As the Heat look to build off the gratifying win over the Hornets, the team will likely have to do it without stars Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell.

Looking at Wiggins, he had been playing through knee tendinitis, but is now dealing with left toe inflammation, which is the real reason he's missing Sunday's game against the Pistons. Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra would speak on how “debilitating” a toe injury could be for a player, as the team saw such stars as Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro miss time with a toe issue.

“I shouldn't say because it's not, but when athletes have gotten turf toe, that's a debilitating injury. Wiggs does not have that,” Spoelstra said before Sunday's contest against Detroit. “But we'll just treat him. Every injury is different. So he's dealing with both things right now that we think we can clear up in the short-term, and we'll just see. He's getting a lot of treatment, so that's definitely helping, and he's making some progress, but let me clarify, he does not have turf toe. I was trying to make a point about the importance of a toe or how debilitating it can be.”

While Wiggins is a crucial part of the starting lineup, so is Powell, who has missed the last four games with a groin strain and was initially labeled as “week-to-week” by the team. With a timeline unknown for the team's leading scorer, Spoelstra would say Powell has “definitely been able to do more.”

“So again, I think we shut him down at a responsible time to be able to try to fast-track this. But I don't have an update on this timeline, but he definitely is doing more,” Spoelstra said.

The standout that's bringing energy as the Heat are missing key stars 

Article Continues Below
Miami Heat forward Myron Gardner (15) reacts against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the fourth quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

While the Heat deal with injury woes to Wiggins, Powell, and more, the team does have players who can step up and try to fill in the void. In Friday's win over the Hornets, Myron Gardner got the start and has played well in adding energy with the absence of key players.

Spoelstra would explain to ClutchPoints how Wiggins is “quietly” one of the better two-way players in the NBA, and while they're not asking Gardner to fill in the shoes, he has fit in well with the starters.

“Wiggs is one of the elite, most underrated two-way players in the association,” Spoelstra said as Wiggins is averaging 15.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game, while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from deep. “He's doing some really impressive things for us defensively, guarding one through five and taking on all the big, high usage player challenges. He's doing it quietly, for some reason, I don't know why people aren't recognizing that, and then offensively, you know, he just fits in our system. You know, he really can score in transition. If you sleep on him, he can put 30 on you easily. So he missed that.”

“But Myron has given us a lot of, you know, really impactful minutes all season long,” Spoelstra continued. “You know, we're not expecting him to fill Wiggs' shoes. That's not his responsibility, but he can do the things that he's been doing, which is being extremely active on both sides of the floor, great rebounder, and he just does things with such effort and energy that helps whatever lineup – Spo on Wiggs and Gardner being a starter.”

With Gardner recently getting upgraded to a standard contract from a two-way, he and others are looking to help Miami until Wiggin and Powell return.