Miami Heat: Injury issues continue to pile up after Jimmy Butler sprains his ankle

The Miami Heat are again enduring a wave of injuries. Much like last season, they’re going to have to find a way through it to stay near the top of the East.

The Miami Heat entered Friday night’s game against the LA Clippers as the walking wounded, and things got worse before the end of the game. Jimmy Butler sprained his ankle and did not return in the 122-117 loss to the Clippers.

Butler will be day-to-day with this sprain, as are Kendrick Nunn and Goran Dragic who both missed the game. Nunn missed the game with Achilles soreness and Dragic missed it with a calf injury.

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke with Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel about the injuries:

"“It’s a sprain,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler’s injury. “We’ll have to re-evaluate. I don’t even like commenting after sprained ankles. You have to wait until the next day to see how a guy feels. He’s getting treatment already and we’ll go from there.“Same with Goran and K-Nunn. At least we have a couple of days before the next game and it’ll give them an opportunity to really get into the training room and get some treatment.”"

They join Justise Winslow on the injury list. Winslow’s season has been ravaged by a bone bruise in his lower back which he suffered in early December. He’s only played 11 games in the 45 the Miami Heat have played so far, and he’s at least a week away from getting re-evaluated for a return to the court.

The Heat have made things work in spite of the injuries which have hampered them all season. They’ve had incredible breakout performances from Nunn and Duncan Robinson, Derrick Jones Jr. has shown that he might be the defensive stopper of the future. Bam Adebayo has developed into a likely All-Star faster than anybody could have imagined. Even James Johnson worked his way into the doghouse and then back out in time to step into the rotation for some valuable minutes.

And Dion Waiters… well, he had a classic Dion Waiters game against the Clippers, but we’ll see how that develops down the road and whether the Heat can count on that in the future.

While these day-to-day injuries might not even keep Butler, Nunn and Dragic out for actual games as they don’t play again until Monday against the Orlando Magic, sometimes injuries have a tendency to linger longer than expected for players on this Miami Heat team.

They may find themselves leaning more heavily on Johnson and Waiters and almost certainly will feature rookie Tyler Herro at a much higher level to run the backcourt.