MIAMI – Victor Oladipo will not be with the Miami Heat when he leaves on Saturday for a four-game trip to the West Coast and a higher assessment will be needed before the team knows the full extent of his right knee problem.
Oladipo injured his knee during the fourth quarter of Miami’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night. He had 18 points in 25 minutes and seemed to do something to his knees in a dunk with 5:51 left.
He later received possession, left the court for evaluation, and never returned.
The right knee is the same one that Oladipo injured in 2019, when he broke a quad tendon as a member of the Indiana Pacers. He missed a full calendar year and appeared in just 52 games of the regular season since then.
He has averaged 21.2 points in 20 games with Houston this season and 12 points in his first four games with the Heat.
“We definitely need this guy,” Jimmy Butler told Heat on Thursday night. “We want him back. Playing the way he played today, taking pictures, reaching the cup, reaching the line and involving everyone else … We all want that guy to be OK.”
Miami plays on Sunday in Portland, on Tuesday in Phoenix, on Wednesday in Denver and on Friday in Minnesota. The next home game is April 18 against Brooklyn.
The reigning champion of the Eastern Heat Conference is 27-25, with 20 matches left. They ranked 6th in the east, coming into play on Friday.