SAD NEWS FOR: Bam Adebayo of heat is in trouble for…

Injuries stop becoming an excuse at a certain point. Eventually, injuries start to make sense as the reason for the situation. Even after losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-99 on Friday night at Kaseya Center, the Miami Heat—who had started the season 10-5—haven’t felt like they’ve reached that stage yet, according to their coaches and players. Despite missing Friday’s defeat due to injuries to Bam Adebayo (left hip contusion), Tyler Herro (right ankle sprain), and Haywood Highsmith (lower back contusion), the team managed to play without three regular starters for the second straight game.

Who is out there and who is playing or not is irrelevant. Caleb Martin, a heat forward, said. “We just need to improve; we know what we should be doing.”

The good news for the Heat (12-10) is that they are playing in one of the easiest weeks of the season starting this Monday in Charlotte and Wednesday in Miami, two games against the struggling but suddenly hot Charlotte Hornets (7-13), and then two games against the similarly struggling but suddenly hot Chicago Bulls (9-14) on Thursday and Saturday in Miami. Sunday at Kaseya Center will be the Heat’s return to practice before they head to Charlotte to start this stretch.

The bad news for the Heat is that there is still no firm timeline for Adebayo, Herro, and Highsmith’s returns, even as the team stays around.500 at the 22-game level. However, it is hoped that they can all make a comeback in December, ideally as soon as possible.

Adebayo has missed six games this season due to a left hip contusion that has kept him out of action for three straight games. Since spraining his right ankle during a road victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on November 8, Herro has missed 14 straight games. Furthermore, Highsmith missed one game last week due to a lower back contusion; now, he has missed two consecutive due to the same injury.

We’ve demonstrated that, at the end of the day, we still have enough,” Martin went on. “It is ineffective to commit mistakes and then miss shots, play poorly, or fail to recover in transition. Throughout the game, there are some expensive stuff. Naturally, it is expensive to constantly be injured and deal with such things. However, we have demonstrated that we always have enough. We simply need to work on improving our performance with the personnel we now have.