A day after opening a 13-stitch gash on his right hand, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside said Wednesday his goal is to get back on the court as soon as possible.
Whiteside, who missed four games with a similar injury two seasons ago, was injured in the closing minutes of Tuesday night's victory over the Phoenix Suns at AmericanAirlines Arena, when his split his hand on the backboard between his ring and middle finger.
"I'm going there with the intention to play," he said of Thursday's game against the Toronto Raptors that closes a five-game homestand. "I'm going to go out there, see how it feels."
Coach Erik Spoelstra declined to offer an update, with the team listing Whiteside as "probable" for Thursday.
"He has it wrapped up right now," Spoelstra said. "Obviously he has stitches, so right now we're just letting it calm down. Nothing new, really. We don't have a timeline. We don't have a status, just trying to let it start the process of healing."
Whiteside had the hand wrapped following Tuesday's game.
"There's no treatment," he said. "It's basically letting it heal. It's not really anything I can do to treat it.
"Maybe tape them together. Tape my fingers together, just avoid anything."
While Spoelstra said the laceration was in a different spot than Whiteside's previous hand injury, Whiteside said, "It's in the same spot, but it's a little bigger."
Asked what proved limiting the last time he suffered this type of injury, Whiteside said, "It was just a pain tolerance thing, opening and closing your hand."
Whiteside got in conditioning work Wednesday and posted Tuesday videos of playing video games after returning home.
"Playing video games is a lot easier than going out there and playing NBA guys," he said.
Whiteside said his Thursday decision will be made close to game time.
"If you feel like you can go out there and help or if you can go out there and feel like you're not helping the team at all, just don't play," he said
He said he was initially unaware of the severity of the injury.
"When I first did it, I didn't realize it," he said of what proved to be a rushed exit to the locker room. "I thought I just hit my hand. I remember Josh [Richardson] asked me, 'Are you OK?' I was like, 'Yeah.' Then I looked down and was like, 'Oh, no, I'm not OK.'
"I just felt like something was on my hand. It felt like my hand was wet. I saw it was blood. So I just went to the back. I automatically saw it."
It was the rare case of Whiteside's height and length working to his disadvantage.
"It just got caught on the backboard," he said. "I'm so tall. So when I got my hand, it kind of spaced out, pulled on this finger and just opened it up right here.
"Last time it was the rim. It's weird man. It's crazy."
Whiteside said the severity is about more than the three additional stitches than the previous injury.
"It hurts more," he said. "It's like a burning, throbbing."
The Heat are 2-3 in Whiteside's absence this season. He missed four games in early January with a right retinal contusion and one game later that month with a sprained right ankle. He has not missed a game since Jan. 27.
The Heat were teetering on playoff elimination when Whiteside injured his hand two years ago. This time the Heat are in playoff position heading into their final 11 games of the regular season.
"It's big, you know," he said of his push to return. "I know guys want me out there a lot. It's such an important point of the season. I know they really want me out there.
"As a competitor, it always changes your thinking because it's such a crunch moment in the season. You know you want to do everything you possibly can to help the team. But, you don't want to go out there and hurt the team."
