The Miami Heat (34-43) have lost four-straight games and barely have enough players on their roster to play Tuesday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets (33-43). Will the remaining players survive the experience? Or will they join their teammates on the injury report as The Walking Dead?
Start Time: 7:30 p.m. EST
Location: Game will be played at Miami at the AmericanAirlines Arena
TV Info: FoxSports
Radio: 104.3 The Ticket
(SPOILER ALERT: The proceeding text may allude to scenes and/or characters from AMC’s popular hit television series, The Walking Dead. Then again, if you haven’t seen it and aren’t caught up, then there’s something seriously wrong with you. Seriously.)
If watching five seasons of The Walking Dead and this one regular season of the Miami Heat has taught me, it’s that you can’t get too comfortable with any one character/player. By “comfortable” I mean there’s a good chance that a character you’ve just gotten used to might suddenly, y’know, have his face ripped apart while trapped in a revolving glass door. Or, in the case of the Heat, suddenly incur an injury at some point this season.
The Heat have seven players listed on the team’s injury report for tonight’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. The NBA require a team to field no less than eight players or, in this case, the rest of Miami’s roster. Here’s a view of the report, as per the Sun-Sentinel’s Ira Winderman (via Twitter):
Heat injury report for Tuesday's home game against Charlotte. By rule, Heat must dress at least eight players. pic.twitter.com/cjIs3DNtYI
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) April 6, 2015
One gets the feeling that the Heat would have added more players to the report if they were allowed to do so. Instead, they’ll like have several players playing through injury and possibly aggravating said injury as the team continues its playoff push.
Make no mistake – the push is on. This team isn’t quitting or tanking or simply giving up. They’ll keep going, zombie-like, consumed with the idea of finding a way to win. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they will win. In fact, the Heat have dropped four-straight games and will likely be without several key players that were injured in Sunday’s demoralizing blowout loss to the Pacers. Luol Deng and Michael Beasley will likely join Hassan Whiteside and Chris Andersen on the sidelines.
Dwyane Wade will be there, Rick Grimes-like, refusing to give up in the face of adversity. At his side will be Udonis Haslem, the Heat’s own Daryl Dixon, limping across the court with a string of freshly-caught squirrel around his neck. At Wade’s side will be his very own Glenn, Goran Dragic, who always gets counted out but has proven to be a consummate survivor in this gory regular season.
(We can’t ignore Mario Chalmers, the Carl to Wade’s Rick. Chalmers, like the rest of us, is unsure of his role with the team. And while he can sometimes have his moments, there are times when he’s completely superfluous…someone get Rio a damn sheriff’s hat, A.S.A.P.)
Perhaps I’ve beaten the metaphor to death but the point is that, after 77 games, there’s no way of knowing what will happen with this team next. They’ll face a disjointed, also-injured Hornets team but Miami could win or lose by 20 points and no one would be the least bit surprised.
But if there’s one thing for sure, just like Walking Dead fans already know, there’s always the next season to look forward to.
Check back with a full recap, post-game grades and analysis at All U Can Heat.