The Miami Heat prepare for the tail-end of a back-to-back Friday night as they face the Houston Rockets, a day after losing in devastating fashion to the Philadelphia 76ers. Besides the excitement of the playoffs being near for the Heat, there is also the potential return of star Tyler Herro who has been out for several months.
Fans of Miami are not strangers to the idea that the team has had a continuous injury issue and especially from Herro who has a history, but when he's on the floor, he's a scoring threat that gives the team's offense multiple layers. The University of Kentucky product had been averaging 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 43.7 percent from the field.
The question is still this: Is Tyler Herro playing tonight vs. the Rockets?
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Tyler Herro injury status vs. Rockets
For the first time in what feels like forever for fans, the Heat star was upgraded to “questionable” for Friday's game against the Rockets as there are six games left in the season. Prior to tip-off, he has since been given the greenlight to suit up and play, though he will come off the bench, via Will Manso.
Herro has missed the last 20 games for Miami as he was suffering from a foot injury, specifically “right foot; medial tendinitis” as the last game he played was Feb. 23 in the win against the New Orleans Pelicans. It was reported right after Thursday night's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers by Shams Charania that he traveled with the team and there was “optimism” that he would be in the lineup against the Rockets.
As part of the treatment, Herro received a “platelet-rich plasma injection” in the middle of March in his foot to further heal the injury and was said to be re-evaluated in a week or two. One would assume the training staff and the team liked what they saw and feel confident Herro is close.
Erik Spoelstra talked about Herro's “next phase of return” earlier
Just before the end of March, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke to the media after practice and said the 24-year old star was on the “next phase” of his eventual return. However, at that point, there was no timeline, but was still encouraged to see Herro getting some shots up.
“He’s on that next phase of his return,” Spoelstra said. “We don’t have a timeline, but yeah it’s definitely encouraging that he’s able to get on the wood and start to get ready. This is part of the ramp up, this is part of the plan and there is a lot of encouraging things with guys that have been out, everybody has been making really good progress.”
Spoelstra on balancing sense of urgency with not rushing injuries
During that time, the injury report for Miami was piling up and it would be understandable for players wanting to get back out with their teammates as quickly as possible. Spoelstra would say that there has to be a “balance” of having a sense of urgency and being careful with injuries.
“You have to balance like all of this, right now it's it has to be this idea of all hands on deck, but it has to be in an intelligent way. We're trying to get back guys out there as quickly as we possibly can,” Spoelstra said. “They're doing whatever they have to do around the clock to make themselves available. Ultimately, all this becomes about committing to something bigger than yourself to the team, whatever you can get at this time of year and then each case is different. Everybody's body is different. Everybody's rehab is different, the ramp up is different. And we have to treat that accordingly. But we're getting guys back, we're encouraged by the progress and in the mean time, we just have to do whatever we have to do to get wins. We know how to do that.”
Fast forward to the present and with Herro about to play as soon as Friday, the Heat are at their most healthiest point with six games left in the regular season and the postseason near. Now, they have to rack up wins as they are 42-34 which puts them seventh in the Eastern Conference before Friday against Houston.
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