The Miami Heat will enter Thursday night’s inter-conference matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers shorthanded–again.
Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng are both considered doubtful for Thursday’s game, Shandel Richardson of The Sun Sentinel reports.
Erik Spoelstra stated that both starters missed Wednesday’s contact drills during practice. Wade has sat out the past three games due to a hamstring injury, while Deng missed his first game of the season in the win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night because of a wrist injury. The Heat have been 1-2 in Wade’s absence.
Wade has been averaging 19.8 points per game on 51 percent shooting in eight games so far this season. In 10 games, Deng has averaged 14.3 points per contest on 48 percent shooting.
While two of the Heat’s top offensive options are considered doubtful versus the 5-4 Clippers, Josh McRoberts is expected to return after missing the last three games due to a toe blister.
Spoelstra remained cautious however, in determining if McRoberts was ready for Thursday’s game:
“That was encouraging. We’ll see. There’s no way to tell. We’ll have to see how his foot responds.”
McRoberts was expected to be the team’s starting power forward this season, but toe surgery delayed his team debut up until the second game of the regular season. McRoberts continues to recover from his toe injury by playing limited minutes off of the bench behind starting power forward, Shawne Williams.
In seven appearances this year, McRoberts has averaged 2.6 PPG and 2.7 RPG in just 12.3 minutes per game.
The Heat take on the Los Angeles Clippers at the American Airlines Arena at 8:00 pm EST on TNT Thursday night.
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