Heat’s Rozier reportedly week-to-week with sprained knee, Richardson out weeks with dislocated shoulder

The good news is this could have been worse, but that doesn’t make it great.

The Heat’s Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson will miss time with injuries sustained during the team game Sunday against the Celtics. Both underwent an MRI on Monday.

Richardson suffered a dislocated shoulder against the Celtics and will be re-evaluated in a few weeks, according to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic. The amount of time missed with a dislocated shoulder is generally around a month, according to Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes and his extensive NBA injury database. The diagnosis is unsurprising considering what Richardson said postgame, via Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

“I felt my shoulder pop out on the floor and then pop back in laying on the ground,” he said. “So thank goodness for that… A regular play, honestly. I reached and (Jason Tatum) was spun and like tried to pull the ball down at a weird angle. So it was just kind of like a freak accident.”

Richardson averages 25 minutes a night for the Heat, scoring 9.9 points a game and shooting 34.7% from 3.

Terry Rozier is expected to miss less time — he is “week to week” — due to what was diagnosed as a sprained right knee, Charania reports. That was about the best possible outcome considering how the injury looked when it happened.

With the Heat having eight days off around the All-Star break, there is optimism Rozier could return after that break. That’s as good of news as the Heat could have hoped for. Rozier has struggled to find his rhythm since coming to the Heat, averaging 12.6 points per game in the 10 he played (down from 23.2 per game with the Hornets), shooting 35.9% overall and 23.4% from 3.

Richardson and Rozier are out at the same time that Jimmy Butler is taking leave from the team due to a death in his family. Understandably, there is no timeline for Butler’s return.

Miami has two games — at Milwaukee and Philadelphia — before the break. Miami has won 4-of-6 after losing seven in a row before that, and at 28-25 they sit eighth in the East.