Miami Heat update: Udonis Haslem resumes light practice
March 25, 2011: Miami Heat received some very good news on Tuesday when their veteran power forward Udonis Haslem returned back to the practice court. Haslem has been sidelined
from action since late November, when he underwent a foot surgery to cater for a torn ligament.
Although Haslem is keen of returning to the full court practice, but realizes that the nature of the surgery won’t allow heavy expeditions at this stage. Keeping in mind
the slow and steady recovery progress, he has restricted himself to a lighter timetable for now.
When asked about the progress the player responded, "I want to be at 80 to 85 percent. 100 percent? I probably won't be 100 percent until summertime or somewhere close to
next season."
Haslem got injured during a game against the Memphis Grizzlies on November 20th this season. In a nasty collision with Grizzlies’ forward Zach Randolph, Haslem
tore his foot ligament as he felt backward on the court. The Heat is expecting him to be back in action by early April.
In order to recover, the team physicians have advised the veteran forward to undergo weight training, cardiovascular conditioning and light shooting repetition at the moment.
"My focus is on getting out there with these guys, getting a couple of practices, getting my conditioning in, getting a rhythm and fitting in with what these guys have going
on," Haslem said. "I don't want to disrupt the chemistry."
The only member of the Miami Heat squad, that lifted the Larry O’ Brian trophy in 2006, Haslem averages 8.0 points, 8.1 rebounds per game and his efficiency rate had been
12.81 in 26.5 minutes per game.
Mario Chalmers has been filling in for the missing Udonis Haslem. Although he has done a reasonable job, but without Haslem, the guile and the experience has been missing
in the Miami bench and the Big Three are often left alone to finish the job.
The Miami coach, Erik Spoelstra said that he is glad to have such a brilliant player back in the team. While talking to the reporters he said that Haslem’s shot limit for
the day was 50-shots, whereas he would like to push that to 300. Keeping his condition in mind, the staff shall be keeping a very balanced rate.
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