ATLANTA – The Miami Heat knew it was going to be without Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside on this quick road trip to face the Hawks.
The team wasn't expecting to be without Dwyane Wade, too.
The Heat’s 12-time All-Star and co-captain was ruled out for only the fourth time this season Friday with soreness in the back of his left knee. Wade said the injury happened toward the end of Wednesday’s practice and he was hoping rest and treatment would ease the pain and his concerns. But it didn’t.
“I feel OK… it's just a little uncomfortable,” he said about an hour before Friday’s tipoff. “I gave it a couple days to see if it would go away. It didn't. So I just want to go back [to Miami] and get another second opinion. But it's nothing that I'm like overly concerned about. It's just some soreness I haven't felt in a while. So I just want to make sure it's good.
“It's the back of my knee, not the front of my knee. I just want to make sure it's nothing. If it was the front of my knee, tendinitis, I'd be playing. But it's the back, so we’ll get back tomorrow, get with our doctors, get an MRI on it, ease my mind or go from there."
Wade said the injury “came out of nowhere.”
“I turned to run and then I felt it,” he said. “That's the part about it. It wasn't [anything] like I jumped and came down and felt it. That's why my mind is at ease from that standpoint. I didn't actually hurt it. Hopefully, it's just a little irritation and things like that. Hopefully, it will be fine."
Wade has had a history of knee issues, but his knees have been relatively healthy over the last year and a half. He lost 20 pounds, hired a new trainer in the offseason and got himself in better shape. Before being scratched from Friday night’s starting lineup, he had only missed two other games this season for injury. Both of those were because of shoulder discomfort.
Wade said his knees feel fine when he’s resting. He feels a sharp pain, he said, when he squats or tries to turn on it.
“For me when it comes to my knee area, I'm a little bit more [cautious],” he said. “I played through my first hamstring the whole game. I said I was going to be fine, play through it. But when it comes to something like this I'm going to be more cautious. I’m not overly concerned, but just want to make sure I'm doing the right things I need to. I don't want to go out here and try to push it and push myself further back or anything like that. I know there's a long season left for us and it's important for us. I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can so when I'm back on the court I'm doing everything I can."
The Heat dressed nine healthy players for Friday’s game. Center Hassan Whiteside, suspended for Friday’s game for his flagrant 2 foul against the Spurs right before the All-Star break, will be back with the team Saturday night when they host the Wizards.
Said Wade: "It's never a good time at all [to be hurt], but if you say it's a bad time -- this is a bad time."
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