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11/21/2024 11:05:28 pm

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NBA Preview: Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside may not Play in Crucial Game 4

hassan whiteside

(Photo : gettyimages.com) Hassan Whiteside has been listed as questionable by the Heat for Monday’s game.

Miami Heat will be looking to take the Eastern Conference Semifinal's Game Four against the Toronto Raptors when they meet on Monday at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat are trailing by a game 2-1, and they will attempt to win on their own hard wood before the series moves back to Toronto for Game Five on Wednesday.

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Miami has lost their last two consecutive games, and adding to Coach Erik Spoelstra's headache is the bad news of starting center Hassan Whiteside's injury. The league's leading rim protector has been listed as questionable by the Heat for Monday's game.

Whiteside's injury is comparable to that of Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Typically, the recovery period for a mild MCL sprain can be a couple of weeks - though there are cases where players have returned within a shorter period of a day or two and others where it has dragged on for several weeks.

The severity and degree of Whiteside's injury is not yet known. Curry's was a Grade one sprain, which is defined as slight. The Marshall University product was hurt in the early minutes of the second quarter of Game Three while trying to position himself for a rebound.

"It's not always about who's the best team. It's always about who's the healthiest team," Heat starting guard Dwyane Wade said. "That being said, there's nothing you can do. ... It'll be a different game for us with Hassan out, but we have to figure out a game that's successful for us."

Twelve-year veteran Udonis Haslem is expected to have more minutes for the Heat if Whiteside will not be able to play.

Toronto's big man Jonas Valanciunas has also been ruled out to miss the remainder of the series after getting injured in the third quarter of the Raptor's recent victory. The 7-foot center is having a remarkable postseason and has been instrumental in Toronto's last two straight triumphs over Miami.

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