a play-in game either Tuesday or Wednesday<\/a> next week.<\/p>\n\u201cLike I said,\u201d Powell, 32, continued, \u201cthere\u2019s never been one incident where I popped it or I tore it or things like that. It\u2019s just accumulated stress over time, which causes soreness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell is in the final year of a contract that pays $20.5 million this season. He is eligible for an extension, otherwise to become a free agent July 1.<\/p>\n
Alternate reality<\/p>\n
With the Heat entering Thursday night\u2019s game at 41-38, coach Erik Spoelstra spoke at Thursday\u2019s shootaround about being three opponents away from something far better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s three teams we haven\u2019t beaten,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you just wiped out, which you can\u2019t do, those three teams, we have a damn good record.\u201d<\/p>\n
As in entering Thursday night 0-3 against the Raptors, with an 0-5 record against the Orlando Magic and 0-4 record against the Boston Celtics in season series that have been completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 0-12 on these kind of teams and we just have to conquer it,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201d At least we know what it is. We\u2019ve had great success in the rest of the league, and there\u2019s enough habits in those kind of games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Raptors and Magic stand as potential Heat play-in opponents.<\/p>\n
The flip side is the Heat are 11-1 against the tanking Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and Memphis Grizzlies, with Friday night\u2019s game remaining against the Wizards.<\/p>\n
Worth noting with Friday night\u2019s game in Washington is that the Wizards now are locked into a 14% shot at landing the No. 1 selection in June\u2019s draft, the highest odds available in the lottery, reducing the need for must-lose mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Not only was Norman Powell listed on the Miami Heat injury report with groin soreness ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-706760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miamiheat","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116375975580314903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}