The good and bad news surrounding latest Heat injury report for Friday vs. Magic

It appears the Miami Heat will continue to play without multiple rotation players for at least one more game.

Four Heat rotation regulars are on the injury report for Friday’s matchup against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun).

Jimmy Butler (right toe MP joint sprain) and Kyle Lowry (left hand sprain) are listed as doubtful.

Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain) and Tyler Herro (right shoulder strain) are listed as questionable.

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The positive news is that Butler and Martin have technically been upgraded on the injury report, considering Butler was immediately ruled out and Martin was initially listed as doubtful before being ruled out for Wednesday night’s 128-120 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Martin has missed the last seven games and Butler has missed the last five games with their respective injuries.

Lowry has sat out one game since hurting his hand in Monday’s win over the Houston Rockets.

But Herro is a new addition to the injury report after scoring 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field in 37 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Thunder. Herro missed 18 straight games earlier this season because of a sprained ankle.

The expectation is that, if Butler does not play Friday, his return could come either Sunday against the visiting Charlotte Hornets or Monday on the road against the Brooklyn Nets.

In addition, the Heat already ruled out Dru Smith (season-ending knee surgery), Cole Swider (G League) and RJ Hampton (G League) for Friday’s contest against the Magic.

The Heat has been one of the most injured teams in the NBA this season, entering Thursday with the fourth-most missed games in the league this season due to injury at 124 games, according to Spotrac’s tracker. Miami is the only team among the top five on that list with a winning record, as the others in that group are the Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers.

Those injury issues have led the Heat to use 20 different starting lineups in the first 37 games of the season. The only team in the NBA with more different starting lineups used than the Heat this season is the Dallas Mavericks, which entered Thursday having gone through 21 different starting groups.

GETTING DEFENSIVE

The Heat, which has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in seven of the last eight seasons, entered Thursday with the 14th-ranked defensive rating this season. That’s clearly not up to the Heat’s high standards on that end of the court.

Miami’s defense was especially bad in Wednesday’s loss to the Thunder.

The Thunder shot 59.3 percent from the field and 14 of 33 (42.4 percent) from three-point range, while also totaling 60 paint points in its victory over the Heat. The result was the Heat’s third-worst single-game defensive rating of the season, allowing the Thunder to score 128 points per 100 possessions on Wednesday.

“That’s where we’re going to get better is to be able to defend, whether we’re making shots or not,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re going to get there. We’re not there yet. Historically, Miami Heat teams always can do that. Right now, it’s kind of dependent on whether we’re playing great offensively, whether we’re making shots, whether we’re playing in the right rhythm and flow then we’ll defend at a really high level.

“I’m really looking forward to the game that we can win, I’m not breathing it into existence, but I want to see us win a game when it’s in the mud. When it’s a little bit frustrating offensively even if we’re trying to do the right things intentionally offensively, when the ball is not going in, that we can defend at an extremely high level like we’re capable of doing.”

ALL-STAR VOTING UPDATE

With the second returns of fan balloting for the NBA All-Star Game released by the league on Thursday, the Heat duo of Bam Adebayo and Butler still appear to be long shots to be voted in as starters.

Butler (1,059,369 votes) continues to rank a distant fourth place among Eastern Conference frontcourt players behind third-place Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics (2,939,663), second-place Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers (2,975,987) and first-place Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks (3,475,698).

And Adebayo ranks seventh among East frontcourt players with 410,043 votes behind sixth-place Kristaps Porzingis of the Celtics (434,044) and fifth-place Jaylen Brown of the Celtics (749,095).

There are no Heat players among the top 10 vote-getters for East guards. Herro, who is averaging career-highs in points (22.4 per game) and assists (4.5) this season, did not make the cut in the second returns of fan balloting.

Fans account for 50 percent of the vote to determine the 10 starters for the Feb. 18 NBA All-Star Game, which will take place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. All current NBA players and a media panel account for 25 percent apiece of the vote, with every voter completing a ballot featuring two guards and three frontcourt players.

Voting for fans will conclude Jan. 20.

If no Heat players make it to this season’s All-Star Game as starters, they will still have an opportunity to get in as reserves. Head coaches will select the seven reserves from each conference.

All-Star Game starters will be revealed on Jan. 25 on TNT and the network will also announce the reserves on Feb. 1.