Heat G Lowry out at least 3 games with knee issue

MIAMI (AP) — Kyle Lowry has been ruled out for the Miami Heat's next three games with a left knee issue, and he could be sidelined even longer.

Lowry is averaging 12.0 points and 5.3 assists on 39.6% shooting this season, numbers all down from a year ago when Miami went into the Eastern Conference playoffs as the No. 1 seed. He will miss games against Indiana on Wednesday, versus Houston on Friday and at Orlando on Saturday.

He didn't play Saturday at Milwaukee because of what the Heat called left knee soreness. The Heat will re-evaluate him next week, when Miami has two more games before the All-Star break.

“I think this is just what you deal with in a long NBA season,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Tuesday. “There’s going to be unpredictable things. The encouraging thing about it is there doesn’t need to be a procedure or anything like that. We just need to calm it down and that’s where we are right now.”

The last time Lowry's scoring average was this low was the 2012-13 season, the last time he had so few assists per game was 2009-10 — and the only season where he had a lower shooting percentage was a 10-game stint in his rookie year, 2006-07.

He turns 37 next month. The six-time All-Star is in the second year of a three-year, $85 million deal with Miami.

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