Jimmy Butler surfaced on the Miami Heat injury report Thursday, listed as questionable for Friday night’s game against the New York Knicks at Miami-Dade Arena due to a sore right knee.
Butler spent the final 10 minutes of Wednesday night’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at the start of the Heat’s six-game homestand in the locker room.
Coach Erik Spoelstra downplayed the knee following the game.
“Just a little bit of knee soreness,” Spoelstra said. “We were down 25 at that point. He was just going to try to loosen up, get a little bit of treatment. If we would have gotten it to under 10, I’m sure he would have been right back.”
Butler, 33, declined comment after Wednesday night’s game, with his knee wrapped in ice. He has missed 15 games this season, including nine due to soreness in his right knee, but has not missed a game since Jan 24.
In addition, the Heat again listed point guard Kyle Lowry as out due to a sore left knee. It will be the 11th consecutive game Lowry has has missed due to the ailment, having last played on Feb. 2.
The Heat had listed Lowry as questionable earlier in the week ahead of Monday night’s road game in Philadelphia, but Spoelstra said that designation had been premature.
Asked before Wednesday’s game where Lowry stood in the recovery process, Spoelstra only would offer, “Same process, but he’s making progress.”
Also listed as out by the Heat are rookie forward Nikola Jovic, due to a lower-back stress reaction; two-way forward Jamal Cain, who is on G League assignment; and second-year center Omer Yurtseven, who is in Sioux Falls, S.D., with the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Skyforce.
Yurtseven, recovering from November ankle surgery, is expected to see his first action since the preseason with the Skyforce on Friday night, against the Minnesota Timberwolves’ G League affiliate.
“The most important thing is getting out there and doing that practice five on five and then whatever happens in the games is going to be good,” Spoelstra said of Yurtseven’s assignment. “It’s been several months off from five on five.
“He’s really put in some really good work the last three weeks, including all of the conditioning and court work and three on three work. This is just the next step.”
Spoelstra said the G League stint has been in the works for a while, with a plan already in place with Skyforce coach Kasib Powell, the former Heat forward.
“And the beautiful thing about our relationship with Sioux Falls and the coaching staff is there’s constant communication,” Spoelstra said. “So it’s not as if we have to have another special conversation about this. It’s ongoing.
“We knew we were going to do this plan about two or three weeks ago, and Kasib was aware of it, as well. Now we’re finally here and we’re all excited about it.”
The Knicks are not listing any injuries, only that DaQuan Jeffries, Trevor Keels and Duane Washington are on G League assignment.
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