Heat center Dewayne Dedmon out 1-2 weeks with ‘Grade 1-plus’ MCL sprain in left knee

Miami Heat center Dewayne Dedmon will be out 1-to-2 weeks with a Grade 1-plus MCL sprain in his left knee, the team announced Friday.

Dedmon suffered the non-contact injury just after five minutes of action in the first quarter of Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons. It occurred after he collected a pass from Gabe Vincent before attempting a layup.

Dedmon immediately fell and repeatedly banged the floor in pain. He was able to walk off the floor, with a limp, under his own power — but immediately left for the locker room and did not return. Miami used Omer Yurtseven, KZ Okpala and (Mr. 305) Udonis Haslem at the five in his absence the rest of the game.

The 7-foot center was starting in place of All-Star center Bam Adebayo, who’s been out since Nov. 29 after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right thumb (requiring surgery). Adebayo was scheduled to be out 4-to-6 weeks.

Yurtseven will presumably be the starting center with both of the Heat’s top centers hurt.

Dedmon’s averaging 6.5 points and 6.1 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game, shooting 57.5 percent from the floor — including 12-of-20 (60.0 percent) from 3-point range — with a 64.4 true-shooting percentage and a 17.0 player efficiency rating (PER). He and Duncan Robinson are the only two Heat players to appear in each of the team’s first 33 games this season.

Excluding Thursday’s abrupt stint, since Dec. 1, Dedmon’s posted averages of 9.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 blocks on 58.7 percent shooting (65.0 TS%) in 11 starts. He shot 9-of-14 from beyond the arc and sported a 2.7 NET rating when on the court (compared to a minus-1.5 NET rating when he’s not) over that span, too, albeit a small sample.

The Heat have been decimated by injuries — especially in the front court — as of late. They’re currently missing Jimmy Butler (tailbone), Adebayo, Victor Oladipo (recovering from knee surgery) and P.J. Tucker (leg).

That’s not including Markieff Morris, who’s missed the last 23 games with a neck injury after the Nikola Jokic incident, and Caleb Martin, who recently cleared health-and-safety protocols. Though Morris — who the Heat could desperately use as a small-ball five amid the injuries to Dedmon and Adebayo — indicated he’s going to be back soon via Twitter.

Hot Hot Hoops’ own Diego Quezada wrote about their potential returns, which you can read about here.