The Miami Heat are either the most injured team in the NBA or threw a very public dig at the league.
The team’s Friday began with the NBA fining it $25,000 for “failing to disclose an accurate game availability status for several players” before its win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.
For those who don’t speak league office, the NBA was punishing the Heat for sitting star Jimmy Butler, among others, for what the team called “knee maintenance.” Despite missing Butler, the Heat defeated the Thunder, but couldn’t avoid the fine.
Hour after the fine was announced, the Heat released a curious injury report. Every single one of the 16 players on the Heat’s active roster were listed as injured, with varying degrees of availability for Saturday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. Three players are listed as out, but only two of them are due to injury.
Here’s the full report:
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Bam Adebayo is questionable with a left ankle sprain
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Jimmy Butler is probable with right knee injury management
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Jamal Cain is out due to a G League assignment
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Dewayne Dedmon is questionable with plantar fasciitis in his left foot
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Udonis Haslem is questionable with right Achilles tendinosis
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Tyler Herro is probable with a left ankle sprain
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Haywood Highsmith is questionable with a left quadriceps contusion
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Nikola Jovic is probable with back spasms
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Kyle Lowry is questionable with left knee soreness
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Caleb Martin is questionable with a left ankle sprain
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Victor Oladipo is probable with left knee injury management
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Duncan Robinson is probable with a left ankle sprain
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Orlando Robinson is probable with lower back discomfort
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Max Strus is probable with a right shoulder impingement
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Gabe Vincent is out with a left knee effusion
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Omer Yurtseven is out due to left ankle surgery
It’s worth noting that the Heat’s injury report was already pretty full — the same report a day earlier had 12 players out, but the team decided to add Cain, Haslem, Highsmith and Orlando Robinson soon after the fine.
Granted, Miami could really be dealing with a “Homer at the Bat”-style series of maladies, but the more likely explanation is the team is throwing shade at the NBA by disclosing game availability for all of its players after it was fined for not doing so.
We’ll obviously see just how injured the Heat are when they take the floor in Mexico City, a game of significant importance to the NBA and its attempts to grow the game internationally.
