Miami Heat guard Dru Smith will accompany the team to New York for Saturday’s game against the Knicks.
He left Wednesday’s victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers after sustaining a knee injury in the first half.
“I think he’ll come with us to New York and then we’ll figure out when we’ll get a scan.” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Spoelstra was more concerned with the issue of the design of the Cavaliers court. He said he felt it played a role in the injury. Smith was making a defensive close out in the corner while trying to block a shot in front of the Cavs bench. The court is slightly elevated, causing Smith to land at a lower level.
“It’s a dangerous floor. I don’t the history of injuries here but we’ve had a couple near scares in previous years when guys are closing out in that corner. Thankfully, nobody’s been injured before but it’s an accident waiting to happen. You close out and all of a sudden you’re going off a cliff. It’s just so dangerous. As soon as he stayed down, we all knew that’s probably what happened.”
Spoelstra said they will evaluate Smith once they get settled in New York. He believes the injury would have been avoided if it were at a different arena.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Spoelstra said. “Dru is mentally tough … It’s really unfortunate for an effort play. If the court was normal, I don’t think there would have been any kind of incident.”