MIAMI (AP) - Udonis Haslem and the Miami Heat spent parts of two days reviewing many scenarios, hoping there was a way to avoid surgery.
There wasn’t.
And Miami’s toughest player is out indefinitely _ possibly many months.
The Heat said Haslem will have surgery Tuesday to repair a badly torn ligament in his left foot, an injury that came Saturday night against Memphis on a play that looked almost harmless at first. Instead, it’ll go down as a significant blow to the Heat, who entered Monday ranked 19th in rebounding in the 30-team NBA, and now will be without their best player in that department.
“We lose a warrior,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.
In the short term, the Heat plan to give more minutes to Juwan Howard at the spot backing up starting power forward Chris Bosh. LeBron James and James Jones will be used at that position as well in certain situations, Spoelstra said.
“There’s no replacement for UD. We all know that,” James said.
The Heat will not know how long Haslem will be out until after the surgery. Spoelstra declined to speculate on a best-case scenario.
Aided by two massive crutches, Haslem made his way to the Heat bench just moments before tip-off of Miami’s home game Monday against the Indiana Pacers. He got a hug and two smacks on the back from James, a fist-bump from Dwyane Wade and said hello to a few courtside ticket-holders.
“His toughness, not disrespecting anybody on the team, is going to be tough to replace,” point guard Carlos Arroyo said. “He’s such a tough guy and what he brings is something special every night. But we have the guys to do it. We understand it’s going to take everybody to continue to work on those details that he provides for us. Rebounding, loose balls, charges. We just have to step up.”
Haslem is considered by teammates to be not only Miami’s grittiest guy, but the primary locker-room leader as well.
The Heat have said for years that Haslem’s work off-the-court and in the locker room is one of the reasons why he’s so valued, and Spoelstra said he expects the co-captain to keep that leadership role during his absence.
“That was the first thing I mentioned to him yesterday when he was getting his tests,” Spoelstra said Monday. “I said, ’You’ve been through a lot already in your life. You will get through this. And secondly, your role as team captain and leader won’t change.’ We will still need that leadership and his voice behind the scenes.”
It’s been a trying few months for Haslem, who thought he was going to leave his hometown during the offseason and sign elsewhere because the Heat, at first, simply could not afford to keep him. Then James, Bosh and Wade all agreed to take less money in their Heat deals, which helped Miami offer Haslem $20 million for five years.
Days after Haslem accepted the new Miami deal, his mother died of cancer.
And now comes another blow.
“He’s down,” said Mike Miller, another injured Heat forward and one of Haslem’s closest friends.
Wade missed almost the entire preseason with a strained hamstring and now has a sprained left wrist, but was back in the starting lineup Monday night. James has been dealing with a shin problem for a couple weeks, and Miller hasn’t played yet this season and isn’t expected back until after Christmas because of a broken thumb and ligament damage.
Miller signed with Miami so he and Haslem could play together. For the next few weeks, at least, they’ll be sitting together in suits on the Heat bench.
“You never want to lose a guy like him,” Miller said. “Heart and soul of this team. So it’s going to be tough for a while. We’ll hold it down until he gets back.”
Haslem’s 8.2 rebounds per game are tops among all NBA reserves; entering Monday, San Antonio’s Antonio McDyess was second on that list with 6.6 per game. Haslem also has four double-doubles already this season, more than any other two NBA reserves coming into Monday’s play combined.
Clearly, replacing Haslem will be difficult.
For now, the approach will be to try to do so from within.
Spoelstra said he and Heat President Pat Riley spoke Sunday about all options, including adding another player, but the indication after Miami’s shootaround Monday morning was that no significant roster changes are imminent.
Free-agent center Erick Dampier _ whom the Heat worked out over the summer, but didn’t sign _ could be an option again, especially if the Heat decide they need more rebounding. For now, the roster remains as is.
“We feel like we have enough,” Spoelstra said. “We are losing a big component of our defense and our rebounding, and that has been a concern in our five losses, but we went over it today. And if we want to make a collective change in our rebounding and controlling that paint area … individually guys have to make a change. We have to have some career-high rebounding numbers as we move forward from each individual.”
A summer of roster upgrades helped steel the Heat for these situations, Spoelstra said.
“Our depth … it’s being tested. It really is,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat were prepared for the worst, especially after Haslem needed to be carried off the floor by center Jamaal Magloire and trainer Jay Sabol on Saturday night.
Magloire said Haslem didn’t say anything as he was getting taken from the floor.
“It was strange,” Magloire said.
Haslem was playing body-to-body defense against Memphis’ Zach Randolph on the left side of the lane, trying to draw a charge. No foul was called after the two collided, but that wasn’t what did the damage to Haslem. After Haslem fell backward to the court, he immediately pointed to, then grabbed, the inside of his left foot.
“I knew it. I knew something was bad,” Miller said. “It’s crazy, too. I rewound it about nine times to try to see what happened. Freak accident.”
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