Whiteside-Valanciunas matchup comes to an end after injuries

MIAMI (AP) — Miami’s Hassan Whiteside and Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas won’t square off anymore in this Heat-Raptors Eastern Conference semifinal series.

And as the games get bigger, the lineups will be smaller.

Whiteside is day-to-day with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, and Valanciunas will miss the rest of the series with a sprained right ankle. Both starting centers were injured in Game 3 of the series Saturday, and both got the news about their immediate futures in MRI exams that were performed Sunday.

“Hassan was thrilled with the news,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Neither one of us slept much last night.”

Miami listed Whiteside as questionable for Monday’s Game 4 of the series, which Toronto leads 2-1. The results of his MRI came out not long before Toronto said Valanciunas would miss the rest of the series, with no firmer timetable offered should the Raptors advance.

“Big, big, big, big, big blow for us,” Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri said. “Big blow for JV. … But you know what? This is the life in the NBA and we carry on.”

Whiteside’s injury is similar to that of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. Typically, the recovery for a mild MCL sprain can be a couple of weeks – though there are examples where players returned within a day or two and others where it has dragged on for several weeks.

The …

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