SUMMARY
- Despite facing painful injury, Jimmy Butler played for 40 minutes through the Heat vs Sixers game.
- Butler is expected to miss multiple weeks due to a suspected MCL injury.
Superstar athletes getting injured is the worst possible situation come playoff time in the NBA. Unfortunately, the Miami Heat have been losing, and it’s only getting worse as Jimmy Butler went down during their clash against the Philadelphia 76ers. This 6x NBA All-Star has been their top gun since arriving on the scene in 2019. Miami has also been one of the toughest teams in the league, until recently mainly due to injuries.
Butler went down with an injury that was caused after the Sixers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. fell on his leg after attempting to block a shot attempt. This happened during the early parts of the game by the end of the first quarter. Though Jimmy seemed like he was experiencing excruciating pain, but he managed to play for the remainder of the game.
The Heat ended up taking a gut-wrenching loss from the Sixers, who have advanced into the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Jimmy Butler played for 40 minutes while recording 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists during the game. Butler played the second most minutes for Miami that night as Tyler Herro appeared for 41 minutes scoring 25 points with 9 assists.
The Heat officially lost a second star with Jimmy Butler’s MCL injury
After the game, various sources revealed that Jimmy Butler suffered an MCL injury. Typically, a bad MCL tear would generally take at least 6 weeks to 2 months to fully recover. This was exactly what happened to Kevin Durant last season, before joining the Phoenix Suns. Ironically, Butler was involved in a play that caused Durant’s injury. Butler is expected to miss multiple weeks as per Shams Charania.
The expectation is Jimmy Butler will be out for multiple weeks with what is feared to be an MCL injury, per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/SJId33jAoM
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 18, 2024
/p>
The Heat will be headed into round two of the Play-In series for the eighth seed. They will be facing the Chicago Bulls without two important pieces, Butler and Terry Rozier. The latter has been suffering from a neck injury. Rozier did not participate in the Sixers vs Heat matchup nor is he expected to play against the Bulls. However, Chicago is on a limp as well since Zach LaVine is out for the season.