The Miami Heat will be without Duncan Robinson once again, beginning Tuesday night against the Atlanta Hawks in the first leg of a back-to-back.
Robinson, who will turn 30-years-old on April 22, was diagnosed with left facet syndrome in mid-March. He missed five straight games before returning on March 31 against the Washington Wizards. Though Robinson is back on the injury report and will miss Tuesday’s game amid the plaguing back injury.
Speaking to the media Tuesday, Robinson noted that he wasn’t feeling like himself when he played in those five games, which led to this upcoming absence.
“Obviously, just wasn’t able to fully feel like myself, to be myself,” he said, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “And that kind of also exacerbated it a little bit, which we kind of knew going in was a potential risk, but wanted to at least go down swinging to some extent.
“Obviously I’m not the most athletic player out there, so I need … the majority of my ability to be able to move and be explosive within my capabilities and was not able to do that. I think that was probably apparent to anybody that was watching the game.”
In the five games since Robinson’s return, he scored just 10 points once and went scoreless across 12 minutes in Miami’s 117-115 loss to the Indiana Pacers Sunday. He’s converted on just six of his 26 3-point attempts (23.1 percent) with 11 rebounds, six assists and three steals since his return.
Including Tuesday night’s game against Atlanta, the Heat have just four games left in the regular season–the other three coming against Dallas (Wednesday) and Toronto (Friday, Sunday). Miami, who’s a 0.5 game back of the 76ers for the No. 7 seed and 1.5 games behind the Pacers for the No. 6 seed, would likely need to win out to avoid a second-straight play-in bid.
Robinson’s health is crucial for the Heat, which means it could warrant shutting him down for the rest of the regular season in order to get him additional rest heading into next week.
“Anything is possible,” Robinson said, when asked if he’ll return before the end of the regular season, per Chiang. “Like I said, I’m doing everything I can in the 24 hours every day to just to try to be available. I don’t have a definitive answer for you in terms of that. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but we’ll see what it feels like.”
Miami just got healthy with Tyler Herro’s return, but will now be without Robinson for the foreseeable future and Terry Rozier, who struggled Sunday and will miss Tuesday’s game with a neck injury.
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Yes, they should. From the Play in tournament into play off is a tougher stretch than the remaining 4 regular season games. If they loose getting into the play in season without Duncan, they don’t deserve to be in the play off.
fkn lowry pushed dunc in back while dunc was in air going for layup.believe when injury happened
It would not have happened if you did not hate so much on Lowry
I still prefer Lowry’s 8pts and a win with the Sixers than Rozier’s 19 points and a loss anyway.
Did I not say that last year the Heat was 3-1 against the Sixers but this year with Lowry the Sixers was going to flip it on the Heat. Guess what, the Sixers are 3-1 this season against the Heat. Lowry’s importance was grossly misunderstood and few still don’t get it.
Maybe you’re one that doesn’t get it. Lowry is a likely hall of fame player who had an egregious contract for a player of his age with his production who was out of shape at least half the time he was here (Riley specifically stated this). Did he have some good stretches? Sure. Is he a savvy player? Sure. His best years were pretty much already behind him when he got here. You’re entitled to your opinion. Most here view it differently. It doesn’t matter anyway – Rozier is the one here and the one I’ll root for. I wish Lowry well for however many seasons he plays, but he no longer plays for the Heat. And the 3-1 turnaround has absolutely nothing to do with Rozier.
The spinal column has a mind of its own so to speak. Every back is different with regard to rehab. What works for one may irritate the other. My experience tells me to shut down most everything until the pain level totally subsides then begin the strengthening process. This isn’t like any other injury to try to play through. For example, I’m probably one of the few to have complete empathy for Ben Simmons. It appears his back rehabilitation journey has unfortunately aggravated his back for the rest of his life…forget his career. That’s pretty much over. The back is central to ANY movement of the body. Depending on the severity one really can’t live a normal life ever again. So…let’s just hope Duncan & the Heat staff are truly aware of the reality of this situation.
Plenty of people has a lot of problem with this, and its never innocent.
I don’t know about Simmons, he has a lot of issues, back problems are only one of them.
Haven’t seen you here for a while. Good comment. True.