Is Jimmy Butler Playing tonight? Injury report for Heat Nuggets for March 13

Fans will be treated to an NBA Finals rematch on Wednesday night as the Denver Nuggets travel to South Florida to take on the Miami Heat. This is their second meeting since the Nuggets toppled the Heat four games to one last June.

The teams met just a few weeks back on February 29th in Denver and the Nuggets won a tightly contested affair 103-97. While the Nuggets have had a strong season and been playing well recently, things haven’t gone as swimmingly for Miami.

The Nuggets enter the game at 45-20, tied with the Thunder atop the Western Conference standings. The Nuggets can pull into first place by themselves with a win over the Heat in Kaseya Center.

The Heat, on the other hand, have lost three games in a row and come into this game sitting at 35-29. They currently hold the eight seed in the Eastern Conference, and are immersed in a battle to try and avoid the play-in tournament for a second straight year.

Obviously last season, the Heat were able to battle through the play-in and made a miraculous run to the finals, but that’s not a reliable path. Surely they would love to climb up to (at least) the sixth seed and avoid playing elimination games before the actual playoffs begin.

So both teams should be highly motivated and we should be in for a good game. But the Heat have been dealing with some injuries lately and may not be at full strength Wednesday night.

Heat injury report

The biggest name in question for the Heat is their superstar Jimmy Butler. Butler is listed as ‘Probable’ for the game with an illness, so he’ll likely be able to play, but may not be 100%. 

Miami will be shorthanded with absences as they’ll be without Tyler Herro, Kevin Love, and Josh Richardson, who have all been ruled ‘Out’. RIchardson is done for the season with a shoulder injury, while Love is recovering from a heel injury and Herro is out with a foot injury.

Nuggets injury report

The Nuggets enter this game essentially at full strength. The only player on the injury report is Vlatko Cancar, who remains ‘Out’ with a knee injury.

Betting odds

The Nuggets are currently listed as 3.5 point favorites and the game has a total of 216.5 points.