Advertisement

Heat’s Lowry might be smarting from minutes load, but his only thought is persevering

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI — Kyle Lowry has long been known for his ability to play a thinking-man’s game. It is among the reasons he still is a productive presence in the NBA at 37.

But based on the heavy workload he has taken on during the Miami Heat’s injury-filled start to this season, there are times when the veteran point guard questions his own judgment.

Coming off yet another solid performance, this time a 17-point performance in Thursday night’s 124-116 loss to the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center, an effort that included 4-of-9 3-point shooting, Lowry acknowledged that he is not quite sure where he is pushing his body.

“At the end of the day, I like to play basketball, I love playing basketball,” he said, with the Heat on Saturday to again host the Bulls. “I’ve taken pride in being able in trying to be available.

“Throughout my career I’ve had a lot of different types of injuries, freak injuries that put me out. But if I have an opportunity to be healthy enough to play, I take pride in that.”

In going 38:33 on Thursday night in the second night of a back-to-back set, after going 24:01 in Wednesday night’s victory over the visiting Charlotte Hornets, Lowry now leads the Heat in minutes played. He entered Friday 51st in the league in minutes played, one more minute than 34-year-old teammate Jimmy Butler.

“It’s not sometimes the smartest idea,” Lowry said, “but I think in this situation now, we’ve been beat up so much this season.”

There soon could be relief, with teammate Tyler Herro, sidelined with a sprained right ankle since Nov. 8, projecting a return next week.

But for now, with Bam Adebayo, Haywood Highsmith and Josh Richardson missing the Heat’s games this week, Lowry has shouldered a load far greater than anticipated.

Last season, Lowry had a similar early-season workload. Then he was lost for a month at midseason with knee pain, returning as a reserve through the Heat’s run to the NBA Finals.

Related Articles

At the moment, back as a starter, with the most starts of any Heat player this season, he feels no choice but to persevere, having missed only one game this season, on the back end of back-to-back set in mid-November.

“I think just trying to be available to help and play basketball games and do my job at the highest level, where I can do it and take pride in being able to be on the floor,” he said, as he turned his attention to Saturday night’s Bulls rematch. “Like I said, not the smartest, but go out there and do my job.”

To coach Erik Spoelstra, Lowry stands as a case study of appreciating what is required, arriving for the start of the season braced for endurance tests such as the current unrelenting stretch.

“There’s a couple of different things there,” Spoelstra said. “One, that he put in the time during the offseason. He was healthy going into the season, into the offseason, so he was really into the training and prepared for this season. He understands as well as anybody that father time is the ultimate opponent and you have to adapt as you get older. The instinct is to do less, and you actually have to do more. You have to prepare for this. I think if he was trying to fasttrack everything once the season started, he would not have been in a position to be able to handle these kind of minutes early on.

“The second thing is Kyle is just a winner. So he understands that having guys out and we needed him.”

Spoelstra does not take lightly that sacrifice, one from a player in a contract year, with the three-year, $85 million contract Lowry signed in the 2021 offseason expiring at season’s end.

“We’re constantly saying, ‘Hey we have enough to get the job done,’ ” Spoelstra said. “You have to have guys that actually live that and breathe that and Kyle’s one of those kind of guys.”

Playing arguably at the highest level since his arrival.

“He’s finding more consistent ways to do that and to complement different lineups,” Spoelstra said. “Hopefully that’ll continue to be something that we can count on, even as we start to get our guys back. We always want Kyle to be aggressive.”