Heat’s Kyle Lowry set to miss Game 5 against the 76ers
With the series now level at 2-2 the Heat will be hard pressed to cover for the absence of one of their key players when Game 5 tips off.
Having clawed their way back into the series, the 76ers can now feel even more confident with the news that the one of the Heat’s key players won’t play in Game 5
Heat’s Kyle Lowry to miss Game 5 against 76ers
According to reports, Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry will be absent for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night. Lowry has been fighting to recover from a left hamstring injury and now it seems that fight isn’t over. “We’ve dealt with it before,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said of Lowry’s absence. “We’ve dealt with all the different rotation challenges and that’s just what we’re dealing with right now. We have plenty of guys that can step up, it can look a little bit different, but we’ve had recent experience with it.”
What exactly happened to Miami Heat’s Kyle Lowry?
It was back in Game 3 of the Heat’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals series against the Atlanta Hawks on April 22nd, when Lowry initially injured his hamstring. After missing four consecutive games, Lowry finally returned for Game 3 of the series against the Sixers on Friday night. Sadly, it now appears as though it was too soon as Lowry would go on to re-injure the hamstring during the first half of Game 4 against the Sixers, before aggravating it further in the second half. Indeed, Lowry sat out the latter stages of the fourth quarter against Philadelphia.
“There is a human side to it,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I know how competitive Kyle is and I know how much he wants to be out there, particularly at this point in his career, this is what he’s playing for, these moments. To be 2-2 locked up in a series, there’s nothing better than that. So I do feel for him, but he’s a great teammate. He was as active as anybody in this shootaround, just making sure that everybody’s prepped and all the details and all that. And he’ll just continue to do all of his treatment and do his Wolverine thing.”
How will the Heat cope without Kyle Lowry now?
According to Spoelstra, Lowry did not require another MRI on the hamstring and has now been listed as day-to-day. With that said, it’s now clear that Heat swingman and out right star Jimmy Butler will have to carry even more weight in the offensive department as Miami look to compensate for Lowy’s absence. This of course is even more the case having lost on Sunday in Game 4. “if Kyle’s not out there, it’s going to have to be me to get it done,” Butler said.
In any case, Miami’s coach is confident that his team will be fine and more over that Lowry will still have a say in the game even if he’s not playing. “He’s so sharp,” Spoelstra said. “He sees things ahead of most people, that would be players or staff alike. And he has just a brilliant way of communicating, infusing confidence. He’s going to have his fingerprints on this game one way or another.”