MILWAUKEE — After missing Wednesday’s team flight for the Miami Heat’s two-game trip to Milwaukee and Brooklyn, forward Jimmy Butler has been suspended again by the team, for those two games, an NBA source familiar with the action confirmed to the Sun Sentinel.

That follows Butler’s previous seven-game unpaid team suspension that ended three games ago, with three largely indifferent efforts during those outings.

While the Heat departed South Florida earlier than initially scheduled Thursday, Butler previously had made plans to travel separately from the team, meeting them in Milwaukee later in the day.

But now, amid what appears to be a zero-tolerance approach by Heat President Pat Riley and team ownership, that allowance was not afforded, with private travel previously a contentious issue amid the simmering unease between player and team.

As with the team’s previous suspension, Butler is eligible to appeal the lost wages of approximately $350,000 per game.

For Butler and the Heat the relationship has devolved to the seeming point of cliche.

At the initial stages, when the six-time All-Star expressed his discontent and the Heat responded with the initial suspension, there was talk between the parties about how to get the genie back in the bottle.

From there, there was the subtext from teammates about an elephant in the room.

Now, two weeks from the 3 p.m. Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline, it is as if the situation is being cast solely about semantics, albeit some words being left unsaid, as was the case Wednesday from both sides.

In the wake of Tuesday night’s home humiliation at the hands of the lottery-lusting Portland Trail Blazers, before the current team sanction, coach Erik Spoelstra was asked about the third consecutive largely lethargic performance from Butler.

“I know what you’re trying to get out of me,” Spoelstra said. “You’re not going to get anything worthwhile. This was not a very inspiring first three quarters by the whole group, so it’s tough to pinpoint one person.”

Instead, for reasons other than on-court play, the Heat did just that Wednesday.

And with that, the Heat head into Thursday night’s nationally televised game against the Bucks at Fiserv Forum with a 21-21 record, in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

All while the melodrama continues.

Moments before Wednesday night’s tipoff it was learned that the Phoenix Suns, the team at the top of Butler’s trade wish list, and arguably his only desired landing spot, had swapped out a juicy future first-round pick for three lesser future first rounders — as in the type of collateral needed to make a multiteam deal work for Butler.

So, to recap:

— At the shootaround ahead of Tuesday night’s game, Heat captain Bam Adebayo was asked about ongoing distractions and responded with a goal of, “locking into the games, so we don’t have to necessarily deal with more outside noise than we already have.”

— Less than two hours before tipoff, when asked about reliable forward Haywood Highsmith being moved to a lesser role in the wake of Butler’s return, Spoelstra offered, “as we figure things out, his minutes will likely be more consistent.”

— Then, against the Blazers, a game the Heat trailed by as many as 27 points, Butler’s game speed, as recorded by the NBA’s tracking devices, measured third slowest among Heat players in action, behind only big men Adebayo and Kel’el Ware, with his speed on offense tracking slowest among the 10 Heat players who saw action.

Granted, Butler, at 35, long has played at a slow-and-steady gait. But at this stage every action, and non-action, has become a talking point.

After offering measured responses and multiple purposely placed “no comment” to questions after Friday night’s return from suspension in the loss to the Denver Nuggets, Butler has not been available for comment after the past two games, which has not necessarily been atypical during his 5 1/2 seasons with the team. Now he won’t be available again in a team media setting until next week — if still with the team.

The inspection only figures to increase, with the Bucks mentioned as a possible part of a multi-team wheel in a Butler trade, with all eyes on the contract of Suns guard Bradley Beal as the linchpin for any deal.

Then for the Heat, but not Butler, it will be on to Brooklyn for Saturday night’s conclusion of the two-game trip, the New York media to get the opportunity to potentially coax more from the situation.

All the while, the clock continues to tick toward the trade deadline and the question of whether this will become a seasonlong balancing act with a player perturbed about not being offered an extension, with the opportunity to further muddle by then picking up his $52.4 million player option for next season on his Heat contract.

For now, it’s as if Butler knew what was to follow when he last spoke, last Friday, “We’re playing a lot of ‘What ifs,’ ain’t we?”

Wednesday, it turned out to be a case of what if he missed a team flight.

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