After Monday night’s impressive win with a skeleton roster missing five rotation players, the Miami Heat on the second night of a back-to-back set will get reinforcements for Tuesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Jimmy Butler and Nikola Jovic will return to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension for their roles in Friday night’s fight against the New Orleans Pelicans. Also, point guard Terry Rozier will be available to play for the first time since spraining his right knee in a Feb. 11 loss to the Boston Celtics.
Terry Rozier, who missed the last four games with a knee sprain, will return to the lineup for the Miami Heat's game in Portland.
Rozier’s injury appeared far more severe in real-time. Aided by the All-Star break, he will miss only four games with the injury.
Before spraining his knee, Rozier was starting to find his footing with the Heat. He averaged 15.3 points on 41.7% shooting and 5.8 assists in his last four games after getting off to a slow start after the Heat traded Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to the Hornets for him in January.
The Heat will announce whether Rozier will return to the starting lineup in this first game back about 30 minutes before gametime (10 p.m. ET, Tuesday). Delon Wright started in his place in Monday’s win over the Kings.
Over his last eight games, Butler is averaging 24.1 points on 56.5% shooting, 8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.1 steals.
Jovic, who started his last three games with Rozier sidelined, averaged 10 points on 55.6% shooting, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in that stint as the starting power forward.
Tyler Herro (knee), Josh Richardson (shoulder) and Orlando Robinson (back) have all been ruled out.
Who is available for the Heat?
That leaves Rozier, Wright, Butler, Jovic, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo, along with two-way contract player Alondes Williams, as available for Tuesday night.
Other two-way contract players Cole Swider and Jamal Cain were sent to the G League after being with the Heat for the first two games of this trip.
Possible starting lineup
PG: Rozier / Wright
SG: Robinson
SF: Butler / Jaquez
PF: Martin / Highsmith / Jovic
C: Adebayo / Love
Who is out for the Trail Blazers?
For Portland, Malcolm Brogdon, Moses Brown, Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Robert Williams III have all been ruled out. Ibou Badji and Justin Minaya are questionable. Ryan Rupert is probable.