Heat injuries have pushed Lowry to provide more at 36. A look at heavy load he’s been carrying

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t have much of a choice but to keep veteran point guard Kyle Lowry on the court during the team’s recently completed 0-4 trip.

With injuries decimating the roster and leaving the Heat without a backup point guard, Lowry logged 44 or more minutes in two of the four games during the trip. As a result, the 36-year-old Lowry entered Wednesday having played the second-most minutes in the NBA at 656 minutes this season behind only Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant (660 minutes).

With Lowry turning 37 in March, that heavy load is not ideal. But with injuries plaguing the Heat through the first month-plus of the season, it has been necessary.

“I can’t say enough about Kyle Lowry and that’s why he has that reputation that he does as a winner,” Spoelstra said ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup against the Washington Wizards at FTX Arena. “He’s dealing with his stuff, too, and he’s just, ‘I’m available, coach. Whatever you need from me. If you need me to play 48, I’ll play 48.’ And he’s basically been doing that every single game on this road trip. It’s not something I like to do sitting in this head coaching chair. That’s where we are right now.”

Lowry won’t play as many minutes when the Heat starts getting players back from injury. But the fact that he has been able to log more minutes than nearly every player in the league so far while staying relatively healthy is an encouraging sign after a strained hamstring derailed his postseason last season.

“I prepare for it. I prepare for it in the summertime,” said Lowry, who is one of only two players on the Heat’s roster who has appeared in each of the first 18 games of the regular season along with Max Strus. “It’s an unfortunate situation, but I got to try to do whatever it takes to help my team win. Unfortunately, us being down bodies, I got to step up and keep playing. I know the games aren’t going the way we want them to go and the plus/minus isn’t the same.

“But for me, it’s about playing basketball and doing my job at the highest level I can possibly do it at. At the end of the day, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to play basketball the rest of my life. I want to play, I still enjoy it and I have fun doing it.”

The Heat’s unfortunate injury situation also gave Lowry an opportunity to log more minutes alongside those on the back end of the roster during the trip. That required more from Lowry as a leader, as he played extended minutes as part of lineups that included developmental players such as Nikola Jovic, Jamal Cain, Haywood Highsmith and Orlando Robinson.

In the final seconds of the third quarter during Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Highsmith made the mental mistake of trying to catch a long Timberwolves inbounds pass that would have landed out of bounds. Highsmith ended up catching the ball out of bounds to give Minnesota one more chance to make a shot with 0.6 seconds left in the third quarter, instead of the Heat getting the ball by its basket if Highsmith would have let the inbounds pass land out of bounds without touching it.

The Timberwolves did not take advantage, missing a three-pointer as the third-quarter buzzer sounded. But Lowry made sure Highsmith knew he made a mistake in that situation.

“You got to be able to just understand time and situation,” Lowry said. “These guys will make mistakes, but they got to also know that they made mistakes. In those situations, they will have to look at the film. For me, I’m going to say something. I’m going to say it constructively to make sure they know that you got to think the game also. It’s not just about playing, it’s about thinking the game also.”

Lowry’s numbers weren’t great. He averaged 18.3 points on an inefficient 36.2 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) shooting from three-point range, five rebounds and 7.3 assists per game during the trip.

But he was available and willing to play big minutes when so many others were out, including a 51-minute outing that resulted in the 21st triple-double of his NBA career in Friday’s overtime loss to the Wizards.

“True professional,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the definition of Kyle, true professional. Being able to play through certain injuries, being his age and playing back-to-backs. He’s telling us, ‘I’m playing tonight.’ I respect that. It just shows a lot about his character and what he stands for. Even though we got guys out, he still wants to go out there and produce and try to get us a win.”

THE WIZARDS ... AGAIN

By the end of the week, the Heat and Wizards will have played three games against each other in a span of eight days. The stretch began last Friday in Washington and continues with two games in Miami on Wednesday and Friday.

“It’s a little bit unusual,” Spoelstra said of facing the Wizards three times in such a short span. “But we’re used to it now, the last couple of years, with having these kinds of schedules, the home and homes. Sometimes you have that grouping of three times in 10 days. We’ll be very familiar with them by after Thanksgiving.”

The Heat has already played the same team in consecutive games in Miami twice this season — hosting the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 22 and 24 and hosting the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 10 and 12.

“You know what they do and you know what guys’ tendencies are and you’re just so used to playing them that it’s an easy turnaround,” Strus said of playing the same team in back-to-back games.

THANKSGIVING FESTIVITIES

The Heat hosted its 31st annual Thanksgiving Celebration on Tuesday at the Miami Rescue Mission. The Heat helped distribute approximately 600 Thanksgiving baskets to underserved families and provide hot meals to 450 resides of the Miami Rescue Mission, which is an organization that provides services to the homeless and others in need throughout Miami-Dade County.

Heat guard Tyler Herro and Adebayo were among those who hosted their own events on Tuesday to distribute Thanksgiving meals in Miami.