The Miami Heat made it all the way to the NBA Finals, and they did it all without a member of their team best offensive weapon, Tyler Herro. He was injured in the second quarter of Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Herro had scored 12 points in the game, which felt like a fatal blow to the Heat at the time.
Of course, we knew the Heat could bounce back and win that series, and the two that followed.Now Miami advances to NBA Finalsdown 3-1 Denverand Herro may return in Game 5, but it may be too late for the Heat.
True, there have been games here, and Miami missed out on Herro’s 20 points per game during the playoffs, but overall, they’ve scored almost at will over the past six weeks. It wasn’t quite the same against the Nuggets in four games. The Nuggets have held the Heat below 100 points in three of their first four games. Denver won all three of those games.
One of the most overused cliches in sports is that the best ability is availability. That’s probably true for the most part, but for the Miami Heat, they need Herro to do more than just show up. He might not necessarily need to score 20 points in his first game back. He needs to shoot efficiently to help the Heat’s cause. Returning from a shooter injury and not playing for nearly two months, that’s about as much as you can expect from Herro.
Any contribution Herro can make will be great, though it may not be enough. Heading into the series, there were reports that Herro might return for Game 1. Then came the third game. It’s now Game 5 of the series, and Miami is in trouble again. But it’s a familiar position for this Heat team, as they barely made the playoffs and had to play two playoff games to claim the No. 8 seed. So, battling against odds like they’ve been doing all season is nothing new for Miami.
Herro was officially listed as a questionable player in Game 5, so this may be a decision that won’t be made until closer to game time. finally, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo need to carry The Heat don’t care about Herro’s status. If they got anything from Max Strus, it was an improvement. He has 17 points in four games. Fourteen of those came in the Heat’s second game in Denver. If the Heat are going to extend this series, they have to get more from Strus and the rest of the supporting cast.