The mood around the Miami Heat’s facility should have been celebratory. Instead, there was a somber feeling within the Heat’s space at Kaseya Center the day after Saturday night’s big Game 3 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
That’s because an MRI on Sunday revealed that Heat guard Victor Oladipo suffered a season-ending torn patellar tendon in his left knee that will require him to undergo a third major knee surgery in just over four years. The Heat only said that Oladipo will miss the rest of the playoffs, but a recovery timetable is expected to become clearer after he undergoes surgery.
“This forum of sports, you feel so many different emotions and I think that was encapsulated in one night,” coach Erik Spoelstra said as the team gathered to watch film Sunday in the wake of Saturday night’s 121-99 home win over the top-seeded Bucks that gave the eighth-seeded Heat a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 first-round playoff series. “We felt so good about the effort that we put forth to be able to win the game. The game was at hand and then to have a moment like that when it just swings and goes 180 degrees the other direction.”
Oladipo’s left knee buckled as he drove to the basket against Bucks forward Bobby Portis and elevated, a move that he has executed dozens of times in games.
He fell awkwardly to the floor with just 3:56 left in the game, and Spoelstra and several teammates rushed to his side while other teammates cursed and buried their faces in towels on the bench.
Oladipo, 30, waved off a stretcher but needed assistance to walk to the locker room.
“Yes, there are injuries,” Spoelstra said. “That is a part of this game, we understand that. But the human side of it when you see somebody that’s overcome so much. He’s done it time and time again and he always does it with an incredible positive spirit and a smile on his face. Even last night, he was smiling. He was like, ‘We’ll find out what it is. Don’t get all emotional around me.’ I must have looked pretty emotional. But that’s why I admire him so much and his fortitude.”
Spoelstra said he felt like “throwing up” after the game, adding: “When you see a player go down like that, particularly a player like Vic, who’s gone through so much in the last three years, that’s definitely not a good feeling to see Vic on the floor like that.”
Oladipo’s Heat teammate Duncan Robinson said: “You kind of have a pit in your stomach seeing something like that. Watching him work and come back from injuries, showing resilience he has, it hurts to see somebody you care about go through something like that. Never count him out, obviously. But it hurts to see somebody that you care about go through something like that.”
The injuries to Tyler Herro (who will miss at least six weeks with a hand injury), Oladipo and Nikola Jovic (back spasms) has left the Heat with 12 available players. Teams are not permitted to add replacement players during the postseason unless they have only nine or fewer available players. Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson are not permitted to play because they’re on two-way contracts.
The injuries to Herro and Oladipo could further increase the workload for Kyle Lowry, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson. Haywood Highsmith also becomes an option for spot minutes.
“The next guy’s going to have to step up,” Lowry said. “And we understand that we’ll get more minutes from Gabe and more minutes from myself, Caleb. We’ve just got to continue to step up and maximize who we have on the floor.”
With Kevin Love returning to the starting lineup in Game 3, the Heat’s primary reserves in Game 4 on Monday figure to be Lowry, Robinson and Martin, with Cody Zeller and Highsmith now possibilities, too.
“I think that’s the responsibility,” Spoelstra said Sunday when asked if he’s already starting to think about how to fill the void left behind by Herro and Oladipo “Again, you talk about how I started this, all the different emotions you have. Well, we still have a task at hand and you have to compartmentalize. We have to get ready for a big game. We know the importance of [Monday] night and their response.”
Oladipo’s series of significant knee problems began when he ruptured the quadriceps tendon in his right knee in January 2019 as a member of the Indiana Pacers and missed the remainder of that season.
On January 29, 2020, he made his return to the NBA, 371 days after the ruptured quad.
He was traded to the Houston Rockets the following January and then to the Heat two months later in March 2021.
But Oladipo injured his right knee in his fourth game with the Heat and underwent a second surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee two months later in May 2021. The procedure was similar to the one he had in 2019.
Was the first surgery simply not done correctly?
“Essentially it wasn’t the right version for me,” he said in September 2021. “It didn’t give me my best opportunity to get my leg back to where it needs to be. Things are different now.”
He missed the first 65 games last season before making his 2021-22 season debut on March 7. The season ended on a fairly encouraging note, with Oladipo offering bursts of offense and strong defense during the Heat’s run to the Eastern Conference finals.
But Oladipo suffered another setback during training camp this year when he was diagnosed with tendinosis in his left knee, the same knee that he injured on Saturday.
Tendinosis is described as “the deterioration of the collagen in a tendon due to overuse and the lack of allowing the tendon to rest and heal. Repetitive motion can cause tendinosis if the joint is not allowed to rest enough between movements, or between periods of movements.”
The tendinosis sidelined Oladipo for the first 24 games this season. He avoided any knee problems the remainder of the regular season, though he missed seven games in February with a sprained right ankle.
Oladipo averaged 10.7 points and 3.5 assists in 42 games (two starts) this regular season, while shooting 39.7 percent from the field and 33.0 percent on threes.
Oladipo lost his rotation spot in March and was a healthy scratch in seven of the Heat’s final 12 regular season games.
Oladipo didn’t play in Game 1 of the Heat’s first-round series against the Bucks, even after Herro broke his right hand late in the second quarter. But he scored 15 points in 26 minutes in Game 2 and had eight points and two steals in 19 minutes in Game 3 before the injury.
Oladipo signed a two-year, $18.2 million deal with the Heat last July and will make $9.5 million next season if he exercises a player option by a late June deadline. It’s now expected that he would exercise the option on that fully guaranteed contract.
The Heat-Bucks playoff series resumes with Game 4 on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and TNT). Game 5 is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
“Everybody knows how much Vic has been through to get back to the point he’s at right now,” Martin said. “Obviously, you don’t want to see that for anybody. But definitely not him, just knowing the route he took to get to where he’s at especially mentally.”
