Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler is not traveling with the team on their two-game road trip to Milwaukee and Philadelphia as he misses another game due to being on personal leave.
Miami Heat Star Out Against Milwaukee Bucks
Butler is dealing with a death of a family member and per his agent Bernie Lee, is on a leave of absence.
“Jimmy Butler has been granted a leave of absence as he deals with the death of a family member. Jimmy and his family ask for privacy at this point in time as they navigate this loss. Updates will be given when appropriate.”
The Heat snapped their two-game winning streak as they fell to the Boston Celtics 110-106 on Super Bowl Sunday. This game closed out their season series, Boston coming out on top and sweeping the Heat.
Miami was already down going into Sunday’s contest as Butler missed the game. But during the game, the Heat lost two more stars in Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson as they sustained shoulder and leg injuries respectively and were ultimately ruled out for the remainder of the game.
It was revealed on Monday that Rozier has avoided a serious knee injury, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Heat member was diagnosed with a sprained right knee.
Terry Rozier is headed to the locker room after landing on his leg. pic.twitter.com/rP521Sh8vL
— ESPN (@espn) February 11, 2024
Richardson, who dislocated his shoulder, will be re-evaluated after their road trip. Both players were not apart of the two-game road trip. The timetable for Richardson is not good to begin, as generally players can miss up to a month of playing time recovering from a dislocation. Richardson said he felt the injury and instantly knew something was wrong.
“I felt my shoulder pop out on the floor and then pop back in laying on the ground,” Richardson said. “So thank goodness for that… A regular play, honestly. I reached and (Tatum) was spun and like tried to pull the ball down at a weird angle. So it was just kind of a freak accident.”
Sunday’s leading scorers in Miami’s loss were Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo, both with 22 points and Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson had 15 points. It wouldn’t be enough as Jayson Tatum scored 26 for Boston, Kristaps Porzingis behind him with 25, and Jaylen Brown with 20 to help the Celtics seal the win.
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