The Miami Heat are severely underhanded at the moment, and superstar forward Jimmy Butler will reportedly not travel with the team for its upcoming game against the young and talented Cleveland Cavaliers.
Confirmed that Jimmy Butler is not traveling with the Heat to Cleveland, as he has his knee looked into. Rest of the traveling party moving on to Cleveland. Injury report later.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) November 19, 2022
Butler sat out of the Heat’s 107-106 heartbreaking loss to the Washington Wizards on Friday night. That game had to go into an extra period to be decided, and only five total points were scored in the overtime period.
Without Butler, the Heat have an incredibly difficult task ahead of them when it comes to trying to defeat the Cavs. The Cavs are 9-6 on the season after winning an overtime thriller of their own on Friday versus the Charlotte Hornets.
The Cavs looked impressive in their win over the Hornets, with Darius Garland logging 41 points and Evan Mobley notching 21 points and 18 rebounds in that game.
Butler is having a characteristically solid start to the 2022-23 regular season with the Heat. He’s currently averaging 20.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. He’s shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Against the Wizards, the Heat featured Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Kyle Lowry and Max Strus. Miami is surely hoping to get some of its other regular starters back for Sunday’s game.
The Heat only had two more players, Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain, log minutes in the overtime loss to the Wizards. That is primarily because Miami is dealing with an incredibly high number of injuries at the moment.
Along with Butler, Victor Oladipo, Omer Yurtseven and Tyler Herro are also all dealing with injuries of their own.
Clearly, injuries will be something for Heat fans to keep an eye on in the days ahead.
As far as what’s coming up for the Heat after their Sunday contest versus the Cavs, they will then travel to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves before heading back home for two straight games against the Wizards.
After that, they will face the Atlanta Hawks, which will be followed by two consecutive games against the Boston Celtics.
Obviously, the Heat would love to get Butler — and the rest of their injured players — back during that stretch of challenging games.
