Heat's Victor Oladipo Out for Season With Torn Patellar Tendon Injury

The Miami Heat will be without guard Victor Oladipo for the rest of the season.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Oladipo suffered a torn patellar tendon in his left knee, which will sideline him for the remainder of the campaign. Miami leads the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks 2-1 through three games of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

Oladipo did not play in Game 1 of the series, but he played 26 minutes in Game 2 and 19 minutes in Game 3. He assumed a larger role in the rotation after Tyler Herro suffered a fractured hand in the opening contest.

However, he was helped off the floor in the fourth quarter of Miami's 121-99 victory in Game 3 with this injury.

"It was a great win, but when you see a player go down like that and particularly a player like Vic, who has gone through so much in the last three years—I don't know what it is right now, so I don't want to jump the gun on anything," Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. "But that's definitely not a good feeling to see."

This is another setback for the Indiana University product.

Oladipo played 36 games in 2018-19, 19 games in 2019-20, 33 games in 2020-21, eight games in 2021-22 and 42 games this season. Jamal Collier of ESPN noted he suffered a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee in 2019 and underwent another surgery on that knee in 2021.

In large part due to that injury, Oladipo has been unable to replicate the two-way stardom he displayed when he was a member of the Indiana Pacers.

In the 2017-18 season alone, Oladipo was named the league's Most Improved Player, an All-Star, an All-NBA third-team member and an All-Defensive first-team selection when he averaged 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and a league-best 2.4 steals per game.

Another serious injury puts Oladipo's playing future into question, particularly since he's turning 31 in May.