5:33pm: Lowry is active and will start tonight, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
5:00pm: Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters, including Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel, that Kyle Lowry is nearing a return for Friday’s Game 3 against the Sixers.
“The intention is for him to warm up and play,” Spoelstra said.
The 36-year-old point guard has missed the team’s last four playoff games after suffering a strained left hamstring in Game 3 of Miami’s first-round matchup with Atlanta. Lowry had previously been listed as questionable, but barring any setbacks, it sounds like he should be available.
“Stylistically it will change things in the margins,” Spoelstra said of Lowry. “But obviously he’s a highly decorated, experienced, playoff-battle-tested guy. He’s the guy that all season long that we turned to get us organized, particularly in the moments of truth. You need as many guys that you can available during the playoffs, that goes without saying.”
Winderman adds that all of the other Heat players who were listed as questionable — Tyler Herro (ankle), P.J. Tucker (calf), Gabe Vincent (knee), Max Strus (hamstring), and Caleb Martin (ankle) — will be active on Friday.
Vincent had been starting in place of Lowry, and the team went 4-0 in his absence. If Lowry does play, he’s highly likely to return to the starting lineup, as he started all 63 of his regular season games, averaging 13.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.1 steals with a .440/.377/.851 shooting line.
Only need him if Embiid plays tbh. Line is at 1 for the Heat. Generally you get more from role players at home. They got nothing from the bench or the other starters in game 2. I think if Embiid is out or limited it’s a 5 to 8 pt loss regardless of what Lowry does. They’d need the same production from Maxey, Harden, and Tobias and someone like Niang to get 18. Can’t have any O-fers.
Number one thing to address this off-season is a scorer off the bench. Thybulle, Green, Furkan, Joe, Springer package them all together find a scorer in that 10-20M range and then find some veteran bodies. Just hard to watch this bench.
And Doc needs to actually play younger players so that they aren’t green in the playoffs. Need a much more rounded rotation.
Depth shows for the teams advancing vs the ones with no depth.
All the people talking about how its not fair the 6ers are without Embiid.. ignoring that the Heat’s QB has been out for over a week and they are rolling without him… Would love to see when people start giving this team the respect it deserves instead of excuses for their success
Boy, oh boy!?!?!
Surely you ain’t trying to compare the effect that Embiid has in the game with K-Low…