Heat’s Dwyane Wade, Chris Andersen out at Denver

The Heat have won four of seven in the series since LeBron James led Miami over Oklahoma City in the 2012 NBA Finals.

Wade had played through discomfort in both shoulders for about a week, but felt he wasn’t responding quickly enough to treatment in order to continue playing. The Heat fell further behind due mostly to fouling the heck out of Danilo Gallinari and Mudiay, who combined to hit all nine of their foul shots through the frame.

Miami has not had much luck against potential playoff teams on its six-game road trip, falling to Utah, Golden State and the Los Angeles Clippers in consecutive games before squeezing out a victory over the Denver Nuggets to stop the slide on Friday.

The day didn’t start out very well for the Miami Heat when G Dwyane Wade was ruled out of yesterday’s game against the Denver Nuggets.

Miami will be without starting point guard Goran Dragic when they take the floor at Chesapeake Energy Arena due a strained calf injury he suffered last week. Whiteside’s triple-double, the second for him this season (with the first one coming on November 17th against the Minnesota Timberwolves), increases his league leading shot-block count to a staggering 151, or 3.97 per game. He ended the game with 19 points, 17 rebounds and a staggering 11 blocks. Perhaps the most underrated player for the Heat was G Beno Udrih, who had 11 points and 11 assists and no turnovers.

Coach Erik Spoelstra said one shoulder has a “slight sprain and the other one is a little bit of an impingement issue that he’s had”. But guard Jameer Nelson missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“I told coach, ‘Don’t limit my minutes, ‘” Whiteside said.

“I want to go to a team that’s about winning, that has a good understanding of what it takes to win and a good city with a good fan base.”

. “I’m back to that athletic Hassan you know'”. With the win, Oklahoma City improves to 29-12 on the season and 19-5 at home. He is second on the team in scoring (18.4 points) and assists (4.6) per game.

Wade’s decision to sit this game was decided earlier in the day when he was having lunch with Bosh.

The Nuggets get another taste of the Eastern Conference and their first look at the rejuvinated Paul George as the Pacers visit the Pepsi Center on Sunday for the fourth game of their eight game homestand. Jokic was finding open shooters from the paint and had a beauty of a no-look pass that lead to a Darrell Arthur layup in the first half. Without Bird rights to Whiteside, Miami doesn’t really have a big advantage on teams.