Kel’el Ware was sent home from the injury-free road trip to return

As it is The Miami Heat defeated the Sacramento Kings on Tuesdaythe rest of the current West Coast road trip has been disappointing to say the least, as in addition to a 1-2 record so far in that span, the team has also dealt with injuries. Besides that Hot star Tyler Hero missed the entire trip with a rib injurysophomore center Kel’el Ware he was nursing a hamstring injury that got to the point where he was sent home to nurse it.

Ware only played in the first road game, last Monday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, but missed the next two games, including Thursday’s 127-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Miami’s head coach Erik Spoelstra will talk about the team’s decision to send Ware back to Miami to treat his hamstring, also saying they’re “optimistic” and don’t expect it to be “long term” question.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a long-term thing, but I don’t have a specific time frame on that,” Spoelstra said, according to The Miami Herald. “We’ll wait until we get back to Miami. He and (Heat senior director of rehab) Jeff Ruiz have already started the process. He had a good day today. He’ll work the next few days and we expect to see some progress.”

Warmth Nikola Jovic playing the five in the absence of Kel’el Ware

Although Heat captain Bam Adebayo has seemingly snapped out of his offensive slumpThe team’s depth at center is now a concern with Ware’s injury. Although Miami has two-way player and center Vladislav Goldin waiting in the wings, Spoelstra opted to play less, putting Nikola Jovic in that spot, leading to mediocre results, including against the Trail Blazers.

Jovic would play 17 minutes, recording five points on two of eight shots from the field, one of seven from deep, with five rebounds and three assists. Spoelstra talked about the benefits of Jovic playing with the five and that he needs more “quickness” to improve.

“When he plays the five, it opens things up for us,” Spoelstra said. “All of his shots were basically wide open. We want him to play assertively, with confidence. He’s so important to what we do. And this is part of being a professional basketball player and a team, where we want to be better than where we are.”

Either way, Miami is 23-22, which puts them in eighth place in the Eastern Conference as the team next plays the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.