Heat struggle with turnovers, more injuries in loss to Wizards
WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the few healthy Miami Heat players, Chris Bosh, summarized his team's injury woes succinctly.
"I can find something on iTunes or something, a nice little medley going right now in A minor. That's sad right?" Bosh joked.
Despite missing the second half of last season with blood clots on his lung, Bosh is the only Miami player to participate in each of his team's 43 games.
Wednesday night's may have been the toughest, a 106-87 loss to the Washington Wizards. The Heat have lost six of seven.
Before the game, Dwyane Wade was scratched with shoulder soreness. Halfway through the second quarter, starting center Hassan Whiteside abruptly fell to the floor with a strained left oblique and did not return. With 2:25 to play, Luol Deng, who scored 16 points, left the floor with a towel covering his face after being poked in his right eye.
Miami began the game with 10 healthy players and ended it with eight.
"When it's another guy going down it's just tough. Two weeks ago we were going into a West Coast road trip really trying to prove ourselves with a whole roster, and now we've got five or six or seven guys out, and it's just a tough pill to swallow," said Bosh, who led the Heat with 18 points.
Wade sat out his second game in the last four.
"I just think it's very inflamed right now," Wade said of his shoulder. "It needs to calm down so it's going to be a day-to-day process. It's very unfortunate because we're down so many bodies, but you know you got to do what's best."
Washington never trailed and had six players in double figures. John Wall had 18 points and 10 assists. Bradley Beal also scored 18. Nene had 16 and Marcin Gortat had 15 with 12 rebounds.
NO SYMPATHY
Washington coach Randy Wittman, whose team has had its share of injuries, doesn't feel sorry for Miami.
"I don't want to hear about anybody else's problems. We've got enough of our own problems. If you look at it like that, they're coming with injury problems. That's what has happened, the flip side of it, when we've gone into places and won some pretty tough games with our own injury problems," Wittman said. "That was, I think, a good thing for our guys."
HALFWAY HOME
The Wizards are 20-21 at the mathematical midpoint of the season.
"We're not as good as we want to be. We're not satisfied where we are. We're not going to give ourselves a high grade. We're average right now," Beal said. "We still have a lot of work to do. At the same time, we're still in a great position to make things happen and make a run."
TIP-INS:
Heat: F/C Jarnell Stokes, who has spent most of the season with the D-League Sioux Falls Skyforce, played his first game with Miami and scored four points. Stokes was acquired from Memphis in November. ... F/C Chris Andersen missed his fourth game with a sore left knee. ... G Goran Dragic has missed five games with a strained left calf. ... G Beno Udrih (strained neck) was out for the third straight game.
Wizards: F Kris Humphries (sore right knee) missed his eighth game. ... F Otto Porter (sore right hip) has been out for four games and F Drew Gooden (sore left calf) missed his third game. ... They're 4-0 with Nene in the starting lineup. He had 16 points in 25 minutes.
UP NEXT:
Miami: Visit the Toronto Raptors on Friday
Washington: Host the Utah Jazz on Saturday.
