Kyle Lowry, PJ Tucker returned to the Mix Heat before the 3rd game of the Eastern Final in Boston – Reading Eagle

Kyle Lowry and PJ Tucker were on the field on Saturday morning at the Miami Heat ahead of Saturday’s game 3 at TD Garden against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals with the top seven.

For The Heat it was a significant step considering that Lowry missed eight of the previous 10 games due to left hamstring tension, and given that Tucker got a bruised left knee in Game 2 on Thursday night to such an extent that initially there were thoughts about the need for MRI.

“They’re both going to perform their whole routine with the intention of playing,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said. “Yes, yes, they were both involved in the shooting.”

Lowry missed the last two weeks, initially injured on April 22 in the Heats ’3rd leg defeat in the first round by the Atlanta Hawks, a series that Heath won 4-1.

He then returned, but was knocked out in the Eastern Semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers, which the Heat won 4-2. Until Saturday, his last action took place on May 8 in Philadelphia.

Spoelstra stressed that the failure against the 76ers was not a failure in terms of Lowry’s rehabilitation.

“He wanted to play Game 5 in the final series,” Spoelstra said of when Lowry began to break away from four in a row. “I think we treated it properly. I think even before that, in the Philly series, we put a tick. Things happen.

“He did not get repeated injuries. I think it was important so he was still able to heal. If he had been injured again, I think he would have been much longer. It’s just that he still felt it, so we made a mistake and spent more time. “

Tucker left defeat Thursday night at the FTX Arena after a first knee injury in the first half and a worsening of it in the third quarter.

But instead of an MRI there was treatment and then a trial on Saturday morning.

Spoelstra laughed when asked what it would take to keep the 37-year-old Tucker from coming out.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think we’re all with him somehow on an eggshell. You can’t ask him how he’s doing. I can’t ask the coach because when he sees me talking to the coach, he barks at me and yells at me when I talk to the coaches. I’m allowed to talk to coaches, that’s part of my job.

“But it’s a return on every definition of it.”

Lowry’s return brings a similar update to what the Celtics got in Game 2, after guard Marcus Smart and big man Al Horford were turned down from defeat in Game 1 on the Heath Court on Tuesday night.

“Obviously you have a playmaker in the Hall of Fame,” Spoelstra said of the 36-year-old Lowry. – It will not be 40 minutes. But whatever his minutes, he has experience and a resume. You can’t necessarily put weight on it; you just know what it means for your team, especially in such a building, on the road ”.

At the Celtics, guard Derrick White has returned after missing Game 2 due to the birth of a son. But the Celtics have brought center-back Robert Williams back to an injury report, calling him questionable because of knee pain. Williams has dropped out of his last four games in the Celtics’ semi-final semi-final 4-3 and defeated the Milwaukee Bucks due to a knee problem that resulted from a previous meniscus operation.

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