NBA: Heat lose Dru Smith for rest of season with torn Achilles

Miami Heat guard Dru Smith, left, loses control of the ball as Brooklyn Nets guard Keon Johnson recovers the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat guard Dru Smith has suffered another season-ending injury, this one a torn Achilles in his left leg.

Smith got hurt Monday night in Miami’s 110-95 win over Brooklyn. The Achilles tear was the preliminary diagnosis once he left the court for evaluation, and an MRI exam on Tuesday confirmed the severity of the injury.

It’s his third season-ending issue since February 2022. This injury comes 13 months after he was lost for most of the 2023-24 season with a right knee injury.

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Surgery to repair the Achilles will be scheduled, followed by months of rehab. Smith also saw his 2021-22 season with Miami’s Sioux Falls affiliate in the G League cut short by a knee injury.

“You don’t want to see anybody get hurt, but we all have such incredible, deep respect for his journey and what he’s had to overcome,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday night, before the full extent of the injury was confirmed.

“I’ve been in the building all those times last year when nobody else was here and he was doing all the extensive treatment and rehab, around the clock. He just has incredible fortitude. You end up absolutely rooting for guys like Dru.”

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Smith was enjoying the best season of his brief NBA career. He was averaging 6.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 19.1 minutes per game, all of those career-bests. He was on a two-way contract, which was likely going to be upgraded to a standard NBA deal — one that could have raised his salary from $578,577 to just under $1.2 million.

Smith’s 2023-24 season ended when he hurt the ACL in his right knee after slipping off a raised portion of the floor in front of the Cleveland Cavaliers bench on Nov. 22, 2023, that mishap also requiring season-ending surgery and several months of recovery. He had been part of Miami’s rotation to that point, appearing in nine of the team’s first 15 games.

Smith has averaged 4.5 points in 38 NBA games with Miami and Brooklyn. He’s been in training camp with the Heat in each of the last four seasons.