All-Star wing Norman Powell has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 right groin strain after undergoing an MRI, the Heat announced on Friday (Twitter link).
According to the team, Powell is considered week-to-week with the injury.
As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes, the veteran guard/forward expressed some annoyance about the series of nagging injuries he’s dealt with this season prior to Thursday’s game in Philadelphia. Powell, who was questionable prior to yesterday’s contest, has previously missed time due to ailments involving his right groin, left groin, left ankle and back.
“It’s really frustrating,” Powell said Thursday of the accumulation of the minor injuries. “But at this point in the season, I feel like everybody’s going through something. So it’s all about pain tolerance and management. For me, you guys know, I’m going to always try to push through, and I have a very high pain tolerance. I try to push my body as much as I can.”
The 32-year-old added that his most recent right groin strain, which forced him to leave the loss to the Sixers after playing just 10 minutes, was something that had been bothering him for a while. Head coach Erik Spoelstra said a specific play caused Powell to exit Thursday’s game early, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“We’re going to have to evaluate that when we get back in Miami,” Spoelstra said following Thursday’s loss. “It wasn’t that he couldn’t [play], it was that one slide against [Tyrese] Maxey, and he overextended it. So that’s the same one that he’s been dealing with, and we’ll just have to see what it is.”
Powell is averaging a career-high 22.5 points per game in 2025/26 while also contributing 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals through 49 games with Miami (30.0 minutes). His shooting slash line is .473/.390/.827.
The Heat will likely be without their leading scorer for at least four games. Powell, who is earning $20.5MM this season, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Nikola Jovic will also be out on Saturday vs. Houston because of lower back injury management, per the team. It will mark the fourth straight absence for the fourth-year forward.
Pain is subjective.. stop acting tough