Heat suspends Dewayne Dedmon for one game. Also, injury updates and Cain’s big night

The Miami Heat, in consultation with the NBA, suspended veteran center Dewayne Dedmon for one game without pay following his bizarre ejection from Tuesday’s 112-111 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Heat announced Dedmon’s suspension on Wednesday night, labeling the reason as “conduct detrimental to the team for actions that took place in the bench area of last night’s game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder.”

With the Heat issuing a suspension for Dedmon, the NBA is not allowed to also punish him with a fine or suspension. So the punishment will end with the team-issued one-game suspension without pay.

Dedmon will serve the suspension when the Heat hosts the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.

Reliving wild Heat win that included NBA history, an ejection and a Jimmy Butler game-winner

The incident that drew the suspension occurred early in the second quarter of Tuesday’s win over the Thunder.

Dedmon entered for his first stint off the bench with 2:22 left in the first quarter and was subbed out for undrafted rookie center Orlando Robinson with 9:25 remaining in the second quarter, with the Thunder outscoring the Heat 13-10 in Dedmon’s minutes.

Dedmon was not pleased that he was pulled from the game after just five minutes and got into a heated discussion with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra during that timeout. A visibly angry Dedmon then stormed off the Heat’s bench as play resumed, swatting a massage gun onto the court as he walked through the tunnel that leads to the team’s locker room.

Dedmon was ejected with 9:15 left in the second quarter for unsportsmanlike conduct that was called because he threw an object onto the court while play was already underway.

“It’s the Miami Heat,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s game when asked what led to Dedmon’s ejection. “We’re all a bunch of gnarly personalities. That part [throwing an object onto the court] was unfortunate. Everything before that, that’s the Miami Heat. But that part was unacceptable.”

Before being ejected, Dedmon recorded two points and three rebounds in five minutes in Tuesday’s win.

Dedmon has been used as the Heat’s backup center for most of the season, but the results have not been positive as he continues to play through plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The Heat has been outscored by 10.1 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon on the court this season.

Dedmon has averaged 5.9 points and 3.7 rebounds in 29 games this season.

Robinson, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, has receive more minutes as the backup center recently amid Dedmon’s struggles. Robinson started on Tuesday with usual starting center Bam Adebayo out.

When a player is suspended by the NBA, a portion of their salary is removed from the team’s salary cap. For the Heat, a league-issued suspension would have helped its position against the luxury tax.

But since the Heat issued the suspension, there is no salary-cap relief stemming from Dedmon’s punishment.

Dedmon, 33, becomes trade eligible on Sunday. He’s on a $4.7 million salary this season and his $4.3 million salary for next season is fully non-guaranteed, which is a contract that could be attractive to a team looking for salary cap relief in a trade that could also help the Heat create more room under the luxury tax threshold in order to add to its roster.

INJURY REPORT

The good news for the Heat is it’s expected to get Adebayo back for Thursday’s home matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks. Adebayo, who missed Tuesday’s win because of a right wrist contusion, is listed as probable for Thursday’s game.

But the Heat will remain without three other starters, as Tyler Herro (left Achilles soreness), Kyle Lowry (left knee discomfort) and Caleb Martin (left quadriceps strain) have been ruled out. Dedmon (suspension), Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Duncan Robinson (finger surgery) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) will also miss Thursday’s contest.

Udonis Haslem (right Achilles tendinosis) is listed as questionable. Adebayo and Haywood Highsmith (left patellar tendinitis) are probable.

The Bucks have not yet issued an injury report for Thursday’s game because they first face the Hawks on Wednesday in Atlanta on the front end of a back-to-back.

CAIN ... THE CENTER?

With Dedmon’s ejection leaving the short-handed Heat with just one true center, undrafted rookie forward Jamal Cain was forced to play the final 10:11 of the game at center despite standing at just 6-6 and 191 pounds.

After undrafted rookie center Orlando Robinson was called for his fifth foul with 10:11 left in the fourth quarter, Cain was subbed in for Robinson and played the rest of the way as the Heat’s center.

“I was kind of trying to be prepared for anything,” Cain said. “With O being in foul trouble, I knew I was going to have to step in after five [fouls]. And it’s something I’ve been doing here since I’ve been here is playing the five, a small-ball five and just using my quickness and athleticism to try to just help in any way I can.”

The 23-year-old Cain fit right in as the small-ball center, contributing five points, two rebounds and one assist during his 10-minute stint off the bench to close the game. That stat line included an important corner three in front of the Thunder bench to put the Heat ahead by four points with 5:27 to play.

“I can tell you what I heard,” Cain said when asked about that late-game three-pointer. “The whole bench behind me saying, ‘He can’t shoot.’ So when I hit it, y’all can see me turn around and I kind of looked at them. I was ready. That’s something I’ve been doing since I’ve been here. Just shooting the corner three and trying to master the corner three, so I was ready for that moment.”

Cain finished Tuesday’s win with a career-high 12 points to go with five rebounds and three assists in a career-high 33 minutes.

Cain, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, has spent most of the season in the G League with the organization’s developmental affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Tuesday marked just the 11th NBA game he has played in with the Heat this season.

“Each month, I think he’s gotten a lot better, particularly when he gets back to us and I think that’s a credit to [Skyforce coach] Kasib [Powell] and the whole Sioux Falls program,” Spoelstra said. “He’s made important strides. So that if crazy things happen and all of a sudden you got to plug him into a really important game, he’s ready for those minutes. His Swiss Army Knife ability was really important in a game like this.”