The Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors are playing on the NBA schedule on Friday and the game from the Air Canada Centre is live on TV from ESPN and streaming from the WatchESPN website. Miami comes into the game banged up and they will be without Dwyane Wade and some other stars for this matchup.
The Miami Heat have had a number of players banged up this week and Dwyane Wade is one of them and he leads the list of players that will be out for this game. Wade has been dealing with a shoulder issue and that had him sidelined earlier in the week and now he will be out for the game against the Raptors on Friday night. Wade joins Goran Dragic on the sidelines and now Miami will have four of five starters out for the game against the Raptors.
Hassan Whiteside is out after being injured earlier in the week, while Luol Deng will miss the game along with Wade and Dragic. Dragic has been dealing with a calf injury and has been out since last week. The team also has Josh McRoberts and Chris Andersen out for the game against the Raptors, making the bench very thin for Miami in this game.
Starter Chris Bosh is the only player from the starting five that will be active for the game and he is expected to play some heavy minutes against his old team. The other players that will be available for the game include Gerald Green, Justise Winslow, Tyler Johnson, Udonis Haslem. Amar'e Stoudemire, Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson. Beno Udrih is expected to play, but he comes in as questionable and could be limited for the matchup.
Wade is missing his second straight game for Miami and he has been out for three of the past five games. The Heat started things off against the Wizards earlier in the week without Dragic, Udrih, Andersen and McRoberts active and heading into the game Wade was taken out of the lineup and now is out for a second straight game. The matchup with the Wizards also saw Whiteside and Deng get injured.
The Raptors come into the game as the division leaders in the Atlantic, while Miami is chasing Atlanta in the standings. The Raptors have won six games in a row and are trying to keep their streak going and they luckily will get a Miami team that is not nearly at full strength. DeMar DeRozan has been playing very well for the Raptors and he comes in while averaging over 30 points in the last two games and he scored 34 in the win on Wednesday against the Celtics.
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Check here for the stats, play by play, updates and score for the game.
