Nickelback offers Heat’s Jimmy Butler, ‘to come sing along live’; Lowry out vs. Bulls

Whether making a statement about his team’s loss or otherwise, the fact the Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler blared Nickelback in the locker room the wake of last week’s overtime defeat against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center caught the attention of the Canadian band.

Friday, the band took to Twitter to inform Butler, “We’re going on tour this summer, hit us up if you want to come sing along live.”

The message was prefaced with, “It’s not like Jimmy … to say sorry!”

That comes from the band’s “How You Remind Me,” which includes the lyric, “It’s not like you to say sorry.”

Butler, as he is wont to do, not only played his postgame playlist at maximum volume, but also sung along, as he also is wont to do.

Butler has been working the past year on producing a country album featuring a variety of singers, with friendships in that genre with Luke Combs, Luke Bryan and Filmore, featured in the opening of Bryan’s “Light It Up” video. He also has expressed enjoying Taylor Swift.

Butler earlier in his career told NBC Sports, “I like country music. I listen to a little hip-hop. But I try to listen to people I’ve gained relationships with over the years, so whether it’s Ludacris or Lee Brice or Jason Aldean, whoever it is I try to support them just like they support me.”

Lowry out

The Heat ruled guard Kyle Lowry out of Saturday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

Lowry is three games into a comeback from knee pain that had him out for 15 games over a month span.

With Saturday opening a back-to-back road set that concludes Sunday against the Detroit Pistons, the expectation was Lowry, who turns 37 in a week, would play only one of the two games.

Lowry, who had been among the league leaders in minutes earlier in the season, has not played both ends of a back-to-back set since Dec. 30-31, in Denver and Utah.

Weary, record setting

The Heat wound up with a decided rest advantage Saturday night, idle since Wednesday night’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies at Miami-Dade Arena.

The Bulls, by contrast, went to double-overtime on Friday night before holding off the shorthanded visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 139-131.

In Friday’s victory, Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan played 51:56, Bulls guard Zach LaVine 46:33 and Bulls center Nikola Vucevic 45:53.

DeRozan downplayed moving on to the second night of the home back-to-back against the Heat.

“I hoop all summer for free,” he said. “Why not do it when you’re getting paid for it?”

It proved to be a record-setting night for the Bulls, with DeRozan closing with 49 points and LaVine with 39.

The 88 combined points set a record for most by a pair of Bulls teammates in a game, breaking the record of 85 by Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright in a 1990 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

DeRozan and LaVine also became the second set of Bulls teammates to each score at least 39, joining Jordan (44) and Scottie Pippen (40) in a 1996 game against the Indiana Pacers.

The other race

Not only are the Heat in a playoff race, but so is their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, who went into Saturday in the sixth and final playoff spot in that Western Conference, with three regular-season games remaining.

The Heat have rookie big man Nikola Jovia and two-way players Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain on assignment with the Skyforce. Cain was limited after a 38-point performance by a shoulder injury sustained in the ensuing game.

Radio conflict

With the University of Miami’s NCAA Tournament game also Sunday night, coverage of the Heat’s game in Detroit — pregame, game, postgame — instead of airing on 560 WQAM will air on 96.5 FM and that station’s HD signal.

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