The Miami Heat dropped Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series to the Atlanta Hawks.
A game that saw the Miami Heat go up nearly 20 points late in the contest, the Hawks would climb back and eventually, take the lead on a transition Trae Young floater that left just mere seconds on the clock for Miami to work with.
While there are many things that can be unpacked about this one, Tyler Herro‘s resurgent performance, Jimmy Butler‘s early injury, Bam Adebayo‘s continued lack of shot attempts, and a few others, the thing of most concern after this game is the health status of Kyle Lowry.
Described as a leg injury in real-time, you would go on to find out that it’s actually a hamstring issue that was bothering Lowry.
This seems to be the play where Kyle Lowry injured his left hamstring@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/VrzbEfSBmo
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) April 23, 2022
While Lowry said after the game that he is the “Wolverine”, alluding to the X-Men media character’s ability to regenerate health and heal in the snap of a finger.
The Miami Heat dropped Game 3 of their first-round series to Atlanta and lost Kyle Lowry in the process. Does that open the door for Victor Oladipo though?
However, here is the latest update from Saturday.
Kyle Lowry is not participating in Heat practice today at State Farm Arena. He left the court in a sweat suit accompanied by a trainer, still walking gingerly with that left hamstring issue. The Heat have not submitted their injury report for Sunday’s Game 4 to the NBA yet.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 23, 2022
With all of this in the air though, it brings up an interesting question and outside of the most obvious one, “what will the Heat do?” That answer to that question, though, is actually the most interesting question alluded to—what about Victor Oladipo?
With Oladipo having the opportunity to showcase himself in a few games prior to the season’s end, you know that he is ready to get out there and show his postseason stuff.
Going for nearly a 40-point triple-double in the Miami Heat’s last regular-season game, a game that saw none of the regulars play, you know he has a certain bounce back to his game. If there were ever a time to dust him off again, it would have to be now, right?
That’s a looming question, but one that the guys seem to be fully aware of. Jimmy Butler hinted at as much when asked about Lowry’s potential absence in this quote from McMenamin.
"“If he’s with us, yippee-ki-yay. If he’s not, somebody has got to step in and do his job.”"
It’s really as simple as that. And if Lowry can’t go, the Dipo question must be asked.
Why not him? Why not now?