The Miami Heat's injury list grew larger Monday and now includes center Hassan Whiteside, who said he was going to have an MRI on his sore left knee prior to Monday's game against the visiting Boston Celtics.
"I'm going to see how I feel later, but right now it's just hurting," said the league's leading rebounder and No. 2 shot blocker. "I just felt it like this morning and during the middle of the night, but mostly this morning. Right now I really don't know much. I'm going to have a doctor look at it."
Whiteside, who leads the Heat in scoring at 16.8 points per game, has been listed as questionable for Monday's game. He wasn't very forthcoming when asked to describe the level of pain he feels his knee. "I'm not good in 1 to 10," he answered.
Whiteside also said he's not sure when he hurt himself, but did confirm the soreness was relatively new. Miami (5-11) did not practice Sunday.
Whiteside missed one practice in the Bahamas because of soreness in his left knee. Last year in the playoffs, he injured his right knee.
"I don't really know right now," Whiteside said when asked if he thought the pain in his knee could be part of a more serious issue. "I don't want to talk anything until it exists. So, I don't know."
The Heat, which previously had announced that starting small forward Justise Winslow (sore left wrist) will miss his eighth consecutive game Monday, will also be without starting shoot guard Dion Waiters and its leading scorer off the bench in Tyler Johnson, coach Erik Spoelstra said.
It's the first time either player will miss a game this season. Waiters, coming off a season-high 28-point performance in Saturday's loss to Memphis, has been dealing with a sore groin and back and will miss Monday's game with a hip flexor injury, Spoelstra said.
"It just wasn't getting better at all and the back-to-back [games] definitely didn't make it any better," Spoelstra said of Waiters. "And it's not going to get better and you really risk it getting worse. Those things are tricky. Anywhere in the hip flexor or groin area, that gets worse and he can be out an extended period of time."
Johnson, who is among the league's leading scorers off the bench with 12.6 points per game, is recovering from oral surgery after losing a tooth in Wednesday's blowout loss at Detroit. Johnson isn't expected to be out very long.
Winslow, though, still has yet to practice, and the Heat isn't sure when he will be back.
"We didn't necessarily know [he would be out this long], but it's in a tough area," Spoelstra said when asked if the length of time Winslow has missed has surprised team officials. "And playing through it was aggravating it. It definitely was not getting better. So he's been able to take care of that with rest. It's still not where he wants it to be. But some areas take a little bit longer. The wrist, there are a lot of moving parts to that."
The good news for the Heat: guard Wayne Ellington and center Willie Reed will play "some minutes" Monday. Ellington has been out with a bruised right thigh since the final game of the preseason, and Reed has missed Miami's past four games with a hyperextended right knee.
Point guard Goran Dragic, who has missed back-to-back games with an elbow injury, could also end up returning Monday. Dragic, listed as questionable, participated in shoot-around Monday.
"He's one of our best attackers," Spoelstra said of Dragic. "[He has the] ability to break the defense down and oftentimes create something out of nothing. All of the games he hasn't played, our paint numbers are down. Justise adds to that, too. For a while there, we were No. 1 in layups attempted and top five in points in the paint. Since those guys have been injured, those numbers have decreased a little bit. But it's just great having him back."
Entering Monday's game, the Heat has had seven players miss a combined 59 games because of injuries season. Chris Bosh and Ellington lead the pack with 16 each with Winslow (7), Josh McRoberts (7), Dragic (5), Josh Richardson (4) and Reed (4) behind them.
