The Miami Heat may be coming off a dispiriting 109-105 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night that knocks them out of the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference standings for the time being, but help in the form of Tyler Herro could soon come.
The Heat’s guard depth has been tested immensely, and it seems like head coach Erik Spoelstra isn’t too fond of Patty Mills or Delon Wright, the two guards the Heat acquired off the buyout market. During their Thursday night loss to the 76ers, both Mills and Wright did not receive a single second of playing time. Thus, Tyler Herro’s return will be very much welcome, especially for a Heat team that has put up just the 18th-best offense in the league since Herro went into his extended absence.
Tyler Herro couldn’t seem to escape the injury bug
Tyler Herro has played in just 36 games this season; Herro has missed two extended stretches this season, missing 18 games from November to December, and now, his absence against the 76ers on Thursday marks his 20th consecutive missed contest.
It has been a year marked by lower-body injuries for Herro. During the month or so he missed from November to December, he had to tend to the Grade 2 ankle sprain he sustained in a November 8 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies. From December 18 to February 23, Herro only missed two games, showing little to no ill effects from his ankle injury.
However, in late February, Herro had to deal with knee and foot injuries, with right foot tendinitis being the official injury (as per his designation on the injury report) that has kept him out for nearly a quarter of the season.
The hope for the Heat now is that Tyler Herro is healthy enough to help them out for the final few games of the regular season, as well as their eventual playoff run. As one would recall, Herro played in a grand total of one playoff game last season after suffering a broken right hand. Herro has a track record of stepping up in the playoffs, so he’ll be a huge help to the Heat’s hopes of recapturing last year’s magic.
Heat still jockeying for position in the East standings
While the Heat have shown that they are very capable of mounting a deep playoff run from whatever seed they enter the postseason in, they would not want to tempt fate on two consecutive years. With six games to go in the season, they are sitting in seventh in the Eastern Conference standings. This would have them on a collision course against the 76ers in the 7/8 play-in tournament matchup — which isn’t particularly ideal given how dominant Joel Embiid can be in a single-game setting.
The Heat have one more matchup against their closest competitor for the sixth spot in the East, the Indiana Pacers, and that will go a long way towards sealing their fate as an outright playoff team. If they get the win over the Pacers on April 7, they win the season series and the head-to-head tiebreaker. Thus, the potential return of Tyler Herro for Miami’s upcoming road trip could be very crucial
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