MIAMI — NBA playoff scoring leader Jimmy Butler was with the Miami Heat for their film session Thursday, without any clarity yet if his sprained ankle will be healed enough for him to play in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Knicks on Saturday.
And if Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra has an answer, he’s not tipping his hand.
“No update. … I’m not going to get into all the minutiae of it,” Spoelstra said. “When we find out how he is feeling on Saturday, we’ll let you know. That’s what the deal is.”
Butler missed Game 2 of the series – a 111-105 win for the Knicks – because of the ankle, which he sprained with about 5 minutes left in Miami’s Game 1 victory at Madison Square Garden.
It was only the fourth game Butler has missed since the last week of January, and two of those were the final two games of the regular season with the Heat locked into the play-in tournament at that point.
Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau, after Game 2, made clear that his team will be ready for a Butler comeback.
“You already know the answer to that,” Thibodeau said. “We will. That’s sort of the nature of the beast right now for everyone. You go in, you know guys are nicked-up this time of the year and so there’s always possibilities that guys could be in or out. … If Jimmy’s available, then we’ll have a plan for him.”
The training room has been a busy place this week for Miami, which has already lost shooting guard Victor Oladipo (knee) for the remainder of the season and shooting guard Tyler Herro (hand) for several more weeks. Wing players Max Strus and Caleb Martin both were dealing with some back pain at times in Game 2, though were able to finish the game.
“I’m good,” Strus said Thursday. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”
Having Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with no games sounds like a needed breather for both sides. New York’s Julius Randle returned in Game 2 from an ankle sprain, and point guard Jalen Brunson has been playing through an ankle issue.
Brunson “didn’t do much” in practice on Thursday, Thibodeau said, noting his status is day-to-day.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry indicated that he wouldn’t be surprised if Butler tries to play.
“I know how competitive he is,” Lowry said. “I would be optimistic, but who knows. Honestly, we’ve got to go day by day with Jimmy, so we’ll see what happens on Saturday at 3:30.”
In the six playoff games so far this season, Butler is averaging 35.5 points on 59% shooting, with 6.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.
BUCKS: Milwaukee fired its head coach, Mike Budenholzer, just over a week after a stunning first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat spoiled a season in which the Bucks owned the NBA’s best record.
Budenholzer’s ouster comes two years after he directed the Bucks to their first NBA title in half a century.
The Bucks posted the most combined regular-season and playoff wins of any team during Budenholzer’s tenure and had the league’s best regular-season record in three of his five seasons on the job. He posted a 271-120 regular-season record and 39-26 playoff mark in Milwaukee.
With a roster featuring two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Budenholzer’s Bucks soared to heights the franchise hadn’t reached since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was wearing a Milwaukee uniform in the early 1970s.
But with the notable exception of that 2021 championship season, the Bucks couldn’t match their regular-season success in the postseason.
PISTONS: Detroit fired assistant general manager Rob Murphy, the team confirmed.
Murphy’s firing comes after being placed on leave amid an external investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct with a former employee.
Murphy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Attorney Megan Bonanni of Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Bonanni & Rivers revealed that DeJanai Raska is the former female employee who served as Murphy’s executive assistant and she is filing a lawsuit against Murphy and the Pistons for abuse and harassment.
SHAWN KEMP, a former NBA star, pleaded not guilty to an assault charge after prosecutors accused him of shooting at a man while attempting to retrieve a stolen cellphone.
Kemp was released without bail following the arraignment in Pierce County Superior Court in Washington state.
He was arrested after the shooting in a parking lot outside the Tacoma Mall on March 8 and released the following day pending further investigation. No one was injured, and Kemp’s lawyers insisted he returned fire in self defense after tracking and trying to retrieve a cellphone that had been stolen from him earlier that day.
However, a probable cause statement by Tacoma police, filed along with first-degree assault charges last month, did not indicate Kemp was shot at.
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