Hassan Whiteside to undergo MRI on injured right knee
They tell us to always look on the Whiteside of life. But that’s becoming increasingly difficult in light of recent events.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra announced that center Hassan Whiteside suffered a “twisted” right knee in Saturday’s Game 3 loss to the Toronto Raptors and will undergo an MRI on Sunday, per Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post.
Erik Spoelstra says Hassan Whiteside has "a twisted" right knee. MRI tomorrow.
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) May 8, 2016
The 26-year-old Whiteside was hurt early in the second quarter when teammate Luol Deng fell into his knee while battling for a rebound. Whiteside limped off to the locker room and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game. Here is video of the injury:
Hassan Whiteside tweaks knee pic.twitter.com/SUdI3lMhhY
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 7, 2016
Whiteside also suffered a strain to the same knee in Game 1 against the Raptors (video here), but had been playing through it.
If Whiteside needs to miss time, the Heat will be without their top interior defender, not to mention the best shot blocker in the NBA. Veteran big man Udonis Haslem, a stellar post defender in his own right, soaked up most of Whiteside’s minutes on Saturday but is aging, undersized, and playing on a torn plantar fascia. Josh McRoberts also saw some time at the 5, which could help the team’s floor spacing and ball movement, but like fellow big Amar’e Stoudemire, he poses a massive liability on the defensive end.
Ethan J. Skolnick of the Miami Herald also suggests that coach Erik Spoelstra may be forced to go super-small with Luol Deng as the nominal 5 in an attempt to play Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas (who has torched the Heat this series, but coincidentally was also hurt in Game 3 with a sprained ankle and is day-to-day) off the floor.
Whiteside, meanwhile, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and looks like a very safe bet to land a max contract offer from at least one team out there.
