The Miami Heat appear to have lost more than just their Play-In tournament game vs. the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night. They could very well be without their star player in Jimmy Butler moving forward now as well.
Butler, who scored 19 points in 40 minutes of action, went down in pain late in the 1st quarter of his team’s 105-104 loss to the Sixers, but miraculously gutted out another 3 quarters of action.
“It really stiffened up on him in the second half, it started to limit him a little more, just the movement, but we’ll see,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game. “We have no idea right now, we’ll see when we get back to Miami.”
After pump-faking and drawing a foul from Kelly Oubre Jr., the 34 year went to the floor grabbing his knee. While the team has yet to reveal the full extent of Butler’s injury, multiple outlets are already reporting that it’s an MCL injury which will keep the 6x All-Star sideline for several weeks.
If that’s the case, it’s an outcome the Heat can ill afford as they must now defeat the Chicago Bulls on Friday night in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. Chicago and Miami split their season series 2-2 as the two clubs alternated wins throughout their 4 game matchup.