The Miami Heat will face off against the surging Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night, but the Heat are going to be missing out on a number of impact players in the game.
A loaded injury report was recently released for Miami. Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo and Caleb Martin are among the players already listed as out.
The Heat have dealt with a number of injuries throughout the 2021-22 NBA season.
Despite that, they have managed to gather a 45-23 record thus far and have a multi-game lead for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference right now.
They’ve won 13 of their last 16 games and continue to put themselves in fantastic position to make a deep run in the upcoming playoffs. Miami is seen as a legitimate title threat this season.
As for the Wolves, they’ll enter Saturday’s game looking to regain their winning ways. They lost to the Orlando Magic on Friday, but before that, they had gathered six wins in a row. After years of missing out on the postseason, the Wolves are currently on track to advance to the play-in tournament.
Currently sitting at the No. 7 seed, the Wolves will likely fight as hard as they can to climb higher in the Western Conference standings before the regular season ends.
As for Butler, he is likely sad to miss a chance to face a team he once played for. Butler had an ugly divorce with the Wolves a few seasons ago, and it seems like there’s still a bit of bad blood there.
With all of the absences in the Heat’s lineup, the team’s rotation will likely be quite short. Miami is going to need some players to step up in order to grab a win.