Tyler Herro back at practice, questionable Friday vs. Raptors. And more from Heat practice
Tyler Herro watch continues.
The Miami Heat’s second-year guard returned to practice on Thursday after missing the past three games because of neck spasms. Herro, who turned 21 on Wednesday and started each of the first 10 games he appeared in, is questionable to play in Friday’s game against the Toronto Raptors in Tampa at Amalie Arena.
“We’ll just take it one day at a time,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Thursday’s practice when asked about Herro’s status. “It was good to have him on the court doing some work.”
But the Heat remains without wing Jimmy Butler and guard Avery Bradley because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Friday will mark the sixth consecutive game both players have missed because of protocols, as their last game action came in Miami’s Jan. 9 road win against the Washington Wizards.
Heat center Meyers Leonard (left shoulder strain) will also miss his sixth consecutive game on Friday.
Butler, Bradley and Leonard did not travel with the Heat to Tampa for the start of its four-game trip. It’s unclear whether they will join the team at any point during the trip, which ends with two straight games against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday and Monday.
In addition, center Chris Silva (left hip flexor strain) is questionable for Friday’s game in Tampa. Guards Goran Dragic (right foot contusion) and Gabe Vincent (right knee soreness) are probable to play.
For the Raptors, forward Pascal Siakam (left groin soreness) is questionable for Friday’s contest.
Without two starters in Butler and Herro, Miami used its 10th different starting in the 13th game of the season on Wednesday: Dragic, Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo.
The Heat had 13 available players for Wednesday’s win over the Raptors.
That’s a big improvement from last week, when Miami was forced to play two games with the NBA minimum of eight available players because of COVID-19 issues. Six of the eight Heat players who missed those two games because of the league’s health and safety protocols returned Saturday: Adebayo, Dragic, Moe Harkless, Udonis Haslem, Kendrick Nunn and KZ Okpala.
According to an ESPN report from Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA’s handling of teams dealing with COVID-19 issues continues to evolve. On Thursday, the league postponed three consecutive Memphis Grizzlies games because their roster has been affected by the virus although it may have been able to field the NBA minimum of eight available players at some point during that three-game stretch.
The Heat lost both games it played with just eight players against the Philadelphia 76ers last week. Herro averaged 35.6 minutes of court time in those two contests before his neck injury surfaced on the injury report.
“I think it took a little bit of noise coming from us and from Philadelphia,” Spoelstra said Thursday when asked about the NBA’s evolving process of postponing games. “When you’re going through it the first time, just to let everybody know that this probably isn’t right. There’s no telling for sure if this is why Tyler missed these games, but it definitely didn’t help that he had to play and play that many minutes. We didn’t have anybody else at that point. If he didn’t play, then we would have had seven. In hindsight based on what you’re seeing, we probably just would have not allowed him to play and then we would have been forced into a postponement.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 4:50 PM.
