MIAMI (AP) – Feedback from Victor Oladipo‘s Miami Heat His teammates told the story as he sat on the court, holding his left knee as the fans watched in stunned silence. Kyle Lowry shouted profanities. Max Strauss covered his face with a towel. Jimmy Butler held his head in his hands, staring at the ground.
They were afraid that he was badly injured. They were right.
The Heat announced Sunday that Oladipo tore his left patellar tendon, a diagnosis that came after an MRI earlier in the day. The injury ends Oladipo’s season and leaves him in serious doubt as to how ready he is to start next season – and possibly beyond. He will need a third major surgery in just over four years, the previous two coming after a quadriceps muscle injury in his right knee.
Any schedule will likely not be known until after surgery.
“Yeah, there are injuries. That’s part of this game. That’s part of this game,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said on Sunday, before the team learned of the diagnosis. “But the human side of it is, when you see someone who’s been overpowered a lot and they’ve done it over and over again, and they always do it with a spirit.” Incredible positivity and a smile on his face – even last night… That’s why I admire him so much.”
Oladipo’s injury is the Heat’s second significant injury in the first three games of the season against Milwaukee. Eighth-seeded Miami leads 2-1 over first-seeded Bucks in the fourth round on Monday night. Tyler Hero has been missing for at least six weeks, which likely means the rest of the season no matter how far Miami goes, when he broke his right hand in Game 1 in Milwaukee.
Hiro’s injury appeared to open the door for Oladipo to have a bigger role in Miami’s guard rotation. Oladipo played 26 minutes in Game 2 and 19 before he was hurt in Game 3.
Oladipo has missed 255 of a possible 374 games since getting hurt as a starter while playing for Indiana in 2019. He was listed as inactive in 226 of those games, the second most in the NBA over that span after Jonathan Orlando player Isaac.
“The physical toll of rehab is hard but mentally, it’s even more difficult,” said Heat center Cody Zeller, who played with Oladipo in college in Indiana and was close to him for years. “And he’s always so positive. He’ll attack this rehab like the others. Mentally, I don’t know how he does it. There are so many long days, so many slow days and it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m sick just for him.”
The injury came soon afterOladipo made one of his best playsOf the season, he controls a rebound at one end, dribbles into the bottomcourt at full speed, slips past three Milwaukee players on his way to the rim and scores an air punch in celebration of ending that play.
The next shot he took was his last: He drove down the driveway, passed two bucks, and then appeared to slide as he tried to plant for his jump andHe grabbed his knee immediatelywhen it fell.
“I think about all these times behind the scenes when nobody’s watching,” Spoelstra said. “I feel like I’ve had a front row seat to it on all the rest days for the last three years, on the weekends when nobody’s here – but he’s at the training table, then he makes his way to the weight room, usually a four or five process.” hours and then finishing all the post-rehab work…. These can be very frustrating times, but you’ll never see that on the face of it.”
Miami’s guard rotation is now very thin. Gabe Vincent and Lowry are the point guards. Strus and Duncan Robinson — who has been in and out of the rotation this season, but had 20 points in Game 3 — will be the starting shooting guards. There are not many other options.
Oladipo, who has a $9.5 million player option for next season, was a two-time All-Star with Indiana before he got hurt in January 2019. He came back a year later, wasn’t even close to the same player and Indiana traded him to Houston. In January 2021. The Rockets didn’t hold him long before he moved to Miami, where Oladipo played four games with him in March 2021 before he got hurt again.
Oladipo appeared in just eight regular season games in the 2021-22 season while recovering from a second quadriceps tendon repair surgery. He made 15 playoff appearances for Miami last season, then agreed to a two-year deal to stay with the Heat last summer.
He’s played in 42 games this season with Miami, the most in any regular season since 2017-18.
“Never count it out,” said Robinson. “But it hurts.”
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