Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem miss Miami Heat practice
Dwyane Wade missed the Miami Heat's team practice with a sore left shoulder, while hard-working forward Udonis Haslem sat out with a bruised left knee on Monday 15 November.
Wade, who is averaging a team-high 24.7 points and six rebounds a game this season, hurt his shoulder on 9 November against the Utah Jazz, but he managed to play against the Toronto Raptors
on Saturday 13 November.
“I know I got hit in the Utah game, but I don't remember exactly what was the incident,” said Wade, who reiterated that the injury will not cause him to miss any games. “Just a precaution
today, trying to continue to get treatment.”
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra also said that his two key players will be available in their game against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday 17 November, and the decision to sit them out
of their practice was just a precautionary measure.
Although both Haslem and Wade will not miss games because of their injuries, two-time and reigning Most Valuable Player LeBron James said that the injuries are preventing them from getting
more familiar with each other and developing the team chemistry that will make them more formidable.
Wade missed almost the entire pre-season with a hamstring injury. This clearly affected Miami’s performance in their 88-80 season-opening loss against the Celtics on 26 October.
“You see with D-Wade a hamstring,” said James, who also missed practices this season because of back and leg injuries. “The same thing with U.D., his shoulder was hurt during training camp
and that got healthy and now his knee.”
However, James quickly pointed out that the injuries were not excuses for their slow start this season, in which they dropped four of their first ten games despite having one of the most
talented rosters in the league. The 26-year-old forward said that if someone is out, another player has to fill in the shoes left by the injured team-mate.
“It's no excuses for this team,” said James. “If someone goes down, someone has to step up. I'm not saying these guys are going to be out any particular time or a long period of time, but
as a player, you would just hope some of the nagging injuries would just go away. But I guess that's how it is early in the season.”
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