The Miami Heat have been slumping lately, and their struggles continued on Monday night when they lost by 15 points to the Memphis Grizzlies – without Ja Morant.
The third-year phenom went on Twitter to express how proud he is of his team stepping up in his absence.
The Heat started off the season in strong fashion, giving credence to the preseason predictions that had them contending for the NBA championship.
But now Miami is 14-11, and it has fallen a bit in the Eastern Conference standings.
One of the reasons why is that the team isn’t at full strength.
Star big man Bam Adebayo is expected to be out for the next six weeks with a thumb injury that required surgery, and Jimmy Butler had been out with a tailbone issue.
Butler returned on Monday for the Grizzlies game, but he had trouble buying a hoop, making only 4-of-13 shots from the field.
In fact, in some ways the Heat struggled as a team offensively, turning the ball over 23 times and scoring just 90 points.
Only Tyler Herro (24 points on 11-of-19 shooting) played well for Miami.