Is Jimmy Butler playing for the Heat on Friday vs. Pacers?

The Miami Heat are notorious for loading up their injury report but the team actually has gone through some fairly tough stretches on the health front. No one embodies that more than Jimmy Butler, who has dealt with a series of issues this season. Here’s a look at his status ahead of Friday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.

Jimmy Butler injury updates

Friday PM update: Butler is set to warm up with the intent of playing in tonight’s game, which makes sense as he was listed as probable.

Butler has dealt with back, ankle and knee problems this season but he’s currently listed as probable on the injury report with an illness. The nature of this illness is interesting, as Butler might have eaten some crickets in Mexico City when the Heat played the Spurs, leading to the issue. Butler will likely maintain some sort of designation for a while under the “injury management” tag, but he was ruled out of the last game with an illness after initially landing on the report as probable. We’ll see if he can come back Friday.

Butler’s knee is the bigger problem to watch in the long term, as it flares up from time to time and sometimes does him in at the worst moment. He had to leave at halftime of Game 3 in the East finals against the Celtics due to knee swelling. Illnesses will come and go but that knee might ultimately define Miami’s season.