NBA: Kyle Lowry ruled out of Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics Eastern Conference finals Game 1 with hamstring injury | NBA News
The Miami Heat have listed guard Kyle Lowry as out for Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics.
Lowry has missed six of Miami’s 11 playoff games thus far with a nagging hamstring injury. He missed the first two games of the Heat’s semi-final series against the Philadelphia 76ers before returning for Games 3 and 4.
In those two games, he combined for six points on 3-for-14 shooting before missing Games 5 and 6. Miami won the series 4-2.
Lowry averaged 13.4 points, 7.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game in 63 games (all starts) in the regular season, his first with Miami.
The Heat also listed four players as questionable for Tuesday’s Game 1 in Miami: Caleb Martin (sprained left ankle), Max Strus (strained right hamstring), PJ Tucker (strained right calf) and Gabe Vincent (strained left hamstring).
The Heat will begin pursuit of further Eastern Conference finals success when they host Boston in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
The top-seeded Heat have prevailed in six straight conference final appearances, tied for the fourth-longest streak in NBA history. Two of those series victories came against Boston (2012, 2020).
The second-seeded Celtics have dropped four straight Eastern Conference finals, including three in a four-season stretch from 2017-20.
While Miami has established a greater pattern of recent postseason success – including three NBA titles since 2006 – coach Erik Spoelstra sees nothing easy about playing the Celtics.
“Our guys love competition and love being challenged,” Spoelstra said on Monday.
“They love taking on big challenges. That’s what we’re facing.
“Boston has played as well as anyone in the entire league once they got to 2022. It’s not by accident. They’re playing very strong basketball. They do it on both ends.”
