The Miami Heat appear to be trolling the NBA after being fined for violating league injury reporting rules.
Miami received a $25,000 fine from the NBA on Friday because it failed to correctly report game availability statuses for players in Wednesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In response, Miami listed all 16 of the team’s players on the injury report for Saturday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.
It’s a hilarious way for the Heat to avoid another fine, and it’s possible the team could keep it up with so many players banged up this season. Miami has been one of the most injured teams in the league with Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo, Tyler Herro and others missing time this season.
The Heat will be without one of their key rotation players in the matchup, as guard Gabe Vincent has been ruled out.
The Heat shouldn’t need their full rotation to beat the Spurs, who are just 9-19 on the season, but San Antonio did upset the Heat in Miami on Dec. 10.
The 2022-23 season has been a tough one for the Heat because of injuries, as the team sits at 15-15 through its first 30 games. The Heat lost just 29 games all of last season, so they’ll need to go on a bit of a run to push that mark this season.
Miami is looking to get back to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference this season, but it faces an uphill battle with the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks getting off to fast starts.
Last season, the Heat lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to Boston, and injuries to Herro and Butler certainly played a role in the outcome of that series.
Hopefully for the Heat and their fans, the team can get healthy so it won’t have to worry about another potential fine from the league over reporting injuries.
For now, it appears the team is going to be extra careful about each player’s injury status after taking the hit from the league.
The Heat and Spurs are scheduled to tip off at 5 p.m. EST on Saturday from Mexico City.