Miami Heat's Kyle Lowry still recovering from hamstring injury, out for Game 1 vs. 76ers

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The team announced on Sunday that Kyle Lowry will not play in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers as he continues to recover from a left hamstring injury.

The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on April 22.

The coach of the Heat said that it's not certain when he will be able to play in this series.

After Sunday's practice, Spoelstra said he wasn't going on any kind of timetable. Gym has been great. Everyone has been able to prepare for the series.

The Heat listed Jimmy Butler as questionable, but he said Saturday that he would be ready for the game. Tyler Herro said Saturday that he would play despite being questionable due to a cold. P.J. Tucker, Max Strus, and Markieff Morris are questionable for Game 1.

No matter who is on the floor, Spoelstra and his team are confident that they will be ready for the challenge that awaits them against a Philadelphia squad that will be without injured center Joel Embiid.

We have been forced to stay in the present moment because we have had so many different lineups. Everyone else is ready to leave. We have a big challenge.

This is a series that could change multiple times. You can exhaust yourself with all the different hypotheticals because it could feel completely different by the middle of it. The way it should be is that both teams know who will play Game 1. You should not be thinking about anything after that. Just embracing the competition.

The rest of the team is built for it, as Heat center Bam Adebayo said after Sunday's practice, in regard to everybody else being able to pick up the slack when a teammate goes down.

At least to start the series, Spoelstra has a strong belief that the Heat will not lose focus or let down.

When you build those habits for weeks and months during the course of the regular season, it becomes who you are. P.J. and Kyle are both crazy and hold people accountable to every small thing, starting with high-level competition. That has a 10 times effect on everyone else.