Heat's Napier to miss rest of regular season after undergoing sports hernia surgery

Miami Heat rookie Shabazz Napier underwent sports hernia surgery Wednesday that will sideline him for the remainder of the regular season. 

Miami, sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference, has eight games remaining. The team didn't say whether Napier would be able to make a potential return should it secure a seventh consecutive playoff berth. 

Napier, a 2014 first-round pick out of Connecticut, averaged 5.1 points and shot 36.4 percent from long range in 51 games, 10 of which were starts. 

The Heat are a half-game ahead of the eighth-place Brooklyn Nets, and one game up on the ninth-seeded Boston Celtics.