What Heat players had to say about entering elimination game vs. Bulls without Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler’s knee injury will sideline him for the next several weeks, but it didn’t stop the Miami Heat’s best player from finishing Wednesday’s game.

After suffering what an MRI revealed to be a sprained MCL in his right knee late in the first quarter of Wednesday’s play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Butler managed to stay in the game to log 40 minutes.

Butler was clearly limited by the injury, finishing Wednesday’s loss with 19 points on 5-of-18 shooting from the field. He totaled nine points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field, including 1-of-4 shooting from inside the paint, in the second half with the knee tightening up as the game went on.

But the fact that Butler was able to play 30:06 through the final three quarters on Wednesday after spraining his MCL, when 76ers forward Kelly Oubre Jr. fell on his right leg with 1.5 seconds remaining in the first quarter, left his Heat teammates appreciative.

“I’ve had that before,” Heat forward Caleb Martin said ahead of Friday night’s elimination game against the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center. “Knowing what I felt when I had that, knowing that he played the extra minutes and finished out the game like that, JB is a warrior and that’s why he’s the head of the snake here. He leads and we follow. But we got some dogs right behind him with Tyler [Herro] and Bam [Adebayo]. Those guys are leading the way.”

Along with missing Butler, the Heat also remains without starting guard Terry Rozier for Friday’s must-win game against the Bulls. It marks the sixth straight game that Rozier has missed with neck spasms.

“Obviously, JB going down is a big hit,” Martin said. “… But like coach says, we have enough. We have more than enough. We’ve shown it in the past where guys go down, that’s part of the game and guys have to step up. That’s part of our culture, too. So there’s no excuses and we’ll be ready to play.”

Without Butler, the Heat will rely on Adebayo and Herro to take on an even bigger offensive load than they usually do on Friday. They know more will be expected from them with Butler and Rozier out.

“This is our opportunity,” Adebayo said. “We’ve always had little stints of this. But this is our opportunity right now.”

Butler’s absence will also force the Heat to make a change to its starting lineup. But that’s nothing new for the Heat, which set a franchise record with 35 different starting units used this season because of its unrelenting injury issues.

“This is pretty much how our season has been going the whole year,” Herro said. “We’ve had guys in and out of the lineup. So it’s kind of a regular game for us, honestly.”

As for Butler, Adebayo said Butler is “all right” in the wake of the news that he’ll be sidelined for an extended stretch.

“Jimmy is going to be Jimmy,” Adebayo said. “He’s still going to support us. For us, we just go out there and lock in and rally around each other.”

The Heat hopes to keep its season going even while knowing Butler won’t be available for the foreseeable future.

A win over the Bulls on Friday would put the Heat in the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 playoff seed. The Heat would open the playoffs with a first-round series against the top-seeded Boston Celtics, which would begin with Game 1 on Sunday at 1 p.m at TD Garden.

A loss to the the Bulls on Friday would keep the Heat out of the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

“You don’t need much more motivation than win or go home,” Martin said. “So I think that’s motivation in itself. … It’s about having the right mentality and coming in with the right edge and the appropriate respect for the opponent and just being happy that we’re able to continue to compete.”

INJURY UPDATE

Along with missing Butler and Rozier, the Heat also remains without Josh Richardson (season-ending shoulder surgery) on Friday.

The Bulls are also dealing with the own injury issues, ruling out Lonzo Ball (left knee surgery), Onuralp Bitim (right retinal detachment), Zach LaVine (right midfoot surgery), Julian Phillips (right midfoot sprain) and Patrick Williams (left midfoot surgery) for Friday’s game in Miami.

But Alex Caruso (left ankle sprain), Ayo Dosunmu (right quadriceps contusion) and Andre Drummond (left ankle sprain) will all be available against the Heat after initially being listed as questionable for the game.