Heat’s Jimmy Butler out tonight vs. Bucks in game with intriguing playoff implications

If the Miami Heat is going to avoid dropping to sixth place in the Eastern Conference with just one game left to play, it will have to do it without its best player.

Heat star Jimmy Butler, who surfaced on Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. injury report as questionable because of lower back tightness, will not play Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. The Heat (39-31), which has already cinched a playoff spot, closes the regular season on Sunday night against the Pistons in Detroit.

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Saturday’s contest is important because if the Heat loses to the Bucks, Miami would fall to sixth place in the East standings after the New York Knicks defeated the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday afternoon. A Heat loss in Milwaukee would put Miami one game behind both the fifth-place Atlanta Hawks (40-31) and fourth-place Knicks (40-31) with just one regular-season game remaining for each team.

But a Heat win over the Bucks on Saturday would keep Miami in fifth place. In this scenario, Miami would just need to win in Detroit or have the Knicks lose to the Boston Celtics on Sunday to assure itself of finishing in either fourth or fifth place and avoid entering the playoffs as the No. 6 seed.

The only way the Heat can move up to fourth place is if it wins both of its remaining games and the Hawks lose to the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

Making Saturday’s game in Milwaukee even more interesting is the fact that the Bucks could be playing for the right to face the Heat in the first round of the playoffs. If the Bucks defeat the Heat on Saturday, a Milwaukee-Miami first-round series becomes a more likely possibility.

The fifth-seeded Heat eliminated the top-seeded Bucks in the second round of the playoffs last season in the Walt Disney World bubble.

Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer said before Saturday’s game that the Bucks would not hold out any rotation players against the Heat despite the potential playoff implications attached to the contest. The only Bucks player on the injury report is seldom-used wing Axel Toupane.

“We’re just going to play,” Budenholzer said. “Play the game pretty normal, pretty much kind of like we always do.”

Saturday marks the 19th game that Butler has missed this season — two because of a right ankle sprain, 10 because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols in January, two because of right knee inflammation, one because of a stomach illness, two because of a right ankle sprain, one because of flu-like symptoms and now one because of lower back tightness.

That’s unfortunate news for the the Heat, which is 6-12 record in games that Butler has missed this season and 33-19 in games that he has played in.

Butler, 31, is averaging 21.5 points on a career-best 49.7 percent shooting and career-highs in rebounds (6.9), assists (7.1) and steals (2.1) this season.

Kendrick Nunn, who was listed as questionable because of calf soreness, is available and will start against the Bucks on Saturday. Forward Nemanja Bjelica will start in Butler’s place.

The Heat will be without three players on Saturday: Butler, Victor Oladipo (season-ending knee surgery) and recently signed Omer Yurtseven.