With the seventh seed in the East now sewn up, the Heat will rest their three priciest players and their first-round rookie draft pick tonight against the Wizards, the team has announced (Twitter link).
All-Star center Bam Adebayo will be unavailable due to a left quadriceps tendon strain, small forward Jimmy Butler will miss the bout with a right hand contusion, and veteran point guard Kyle Lowry will rest with a knee ailment. Rookie power forward Nikola Jovic will also be out due to a back injury.
Three other players are considered questionable with various maladies. The statuses of guards Tyler Herro and Max Struss are uncertain due to a right quad contusion and a hyperextended right finger, respectively. Veteran big man Kevin Love‘s availability is murky due to a right rib contusion.
Here are more injury notes:
- The Sixers will sit All-Star center Joel Embiid, a 2023 MVP hopeful, point guard James Harden, forward P.J. Tucker and shooting guard Tyrese Maxey against the Hawks, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Forward Tobias Harris and reserve guard Jaden Springer are questionable to suit up.
- The Knicks have announced that they will rest starting center Mitchell Robinson tonight against the Pelicans (via Twitter). At 47-33, New York is now locked into the Eastern Conference’s fifth seed, as the team is three games ahead of the Nets in the East standings with just two games left in its regular season schedule.
- The Suns will sit their top four players tonight against the Lakers. Sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter) that Phoenix, playing in the second night of a back-to-back set of bouts, will be without All-Star forward Kevin Durant, All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker, future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul, and maximum-salaried center Deandre Ayton against Los Angeles tonight. Charania notes that the Suns have locked up the West’s fourth seed.
- The Mavericks tweet that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, guard Josh Green, wing Tim Hardaway Jr., and frontcourt players Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood will all sit out tonight’s game against the Bulls. Dallas is just 0.5 games behind the Thunder for the West’s No. 10 seed, but sitting all these key rotation players appears to signal a subtle surrender of the club’s season. The Mavericks are currently tied for the 10th-worst record in the NBA, and given that they owe a top 10-protected first-round pick to the Knicks this year, it makes sense that they would hope to preserve their future draft selection.
Mavs want the pick
Mavs clearing tanking…again.
Mavs have no choice to tank… They’ve spent all their chips to get to this point…
All they can do is get better on the margins around the black hole that is Kyrie…
They just gotta hope he wants to go elsewhere and they have to do a sign and trade to get the job done…
But finding that elsewhere that wants him… That’ll be hard…
“With the seventh seed in the East now sown up”
Leading the article with a typo, it might as well be a fitting one!
“expensive veteran point guard Kyle Lowry”
Damn whoever wrote this obviously has some sort of personal bias. Not that it’s necessarily a wrong statement, but to act like overpaying former stars isn’t a thing that happens often, is obviously an agenda driven statement.
But moving on, that Adebayo injury is problematic. The Heat playoff run will depend on his health. Hopefully it’s something he can overcome.
To be honest. I’d protect that pick too. Nothing happening this season for Mavs. And that 10th pick is a nice pick. They could land a starter there. I’m Mavs this who I’m looking at.
link to nbadraft.net
Irony is that Cuban generally doesn’t care to carry rookies on his teams…unless their names are Dirk or Luka.
Mark from Cuba only wants to sell tickets…
If he can’t sell tickets with a rookie he doesn’t want them…
The play in gms this yr. Are going to be serious. All going to be very competitive.
The play in is now starting to take better shape… As teams have taken the past 2 years to adjust to the idea and go from tanking earlier in the year to still trying to remain competitive as long as possible… Where in years past 9 and 10 would be as good as 11 and 12 are now…
Leading to these competitive games to look forwards to…
Knicks have the 8th best record in the NBA
Great year ……. That’s what REBUILDING looks like. Future is bright.
Cavs have the 5th best record in the NBA. Mitchell was a great trade. And their future looks bright.
Unfortunately they will meet in 1st rd. And one will go home.
Since the all star break. Knicks have the 2nd best record in NBA. I know we got a shot with Cavs. Should be fun.
link to statmuse.com
Should be an interesting series… I think the Cavs have the edge on star talent and defence…
Heat is lock for 7th seed. Play Celtics first rouund
If Grizzlies lose Bucks at 5:00pm game, Kings starters will play against Warriors.
Kings would rest the starters if Grizzlies win.
So……The Mavs quit on Kyrie before he could quit on them. I did not see that one coming.
It would have been easy to lose the remaining two games without appearing to tank. At least the Lakers will be out of the picture next year with their new point guard.
And next hopefully it’s Luka quitting on the Mavs…
Trading for Kyrie was such a desperate move to do anything that it failed spectacularly…