As the Miami Heat prepare for the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday in the second game of their home stand, they will have to play without starting point-guard Kyle Lowry. He suffered a left hand sprain in Monday's win to the Houston Rockets according to the team's X (formerly known as Twitter) account where he suffered from extreme pain and immediately went to the locker room.
Not attending practice Tuesday, he is now listed as “doubtful” with the injury which leaves the Heat without a true point guard. Should Miami be worried? Here's why they are not:
There is no doubt that Lowry adds a ton to the team, even at the age of 37-years old. However, the Heat are not worried about who will fill in the ball-handling duties left my Lowry as players like Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Josh Richardson, and others have shown the ability to do so.
The same goes for Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra who mentioned besides the stars, the young players like Jaime Jaquez Jr. and even Nikola Jovic have the ability to get the team “into offense.” Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that this was an aspect the team worked on “all season long.”
“We have enough of the guys that can get us into offense and we've really worked on that all season long to be able to have the versatility because Jaime can get us into offense and then as you saw last night, Niko [Jovic] can get us into offense,” Spoelstra said. “And then when you need it on certain nights where you have guys out, that's really helpful, but then also when you have everybody available, it just helps with the diversity and keeping opposing defenses off balance.”
Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo are not worried about who can play point guard
The Heat's leading scorer in Tyler Herro has also handled ball-handling duties even when Lowry was available to play. After scoring 28 points on Monday night against the Rockets, he said to the media that he feels like he's the point guard when Lowry is playing which isn't “an indictment on anybody.”
“Not really. I don’t want to say this the wrong way, but I feel like I’m the point guard when Kyle is in the game too,” Herro said. “I dribble the ball just as much when he’s in the game and that’s not an indictment on anybody. That’s just how we play. We have a bunch of ball-handlers and guys that can create. So I wouldn’t just say we have one point guard.”
Even as a big-man, Bam Adebayo has shown massive play-making ability in making passes and setting up plays as said Monday that when Lowry is out, it's going to be a “committee.” Although, the star believes Lowry will have an impact verbally and mentally for the team as he'll be the “sixth man.”
“We do it by committee,” Adebayo said. “Tyler has the ball, I have the ball, Jaime, J-Rich. We have guys that can get us into actions. But even though Kyle might be out, he’s still one of those people who sits on the sideline and is vocal. He’s still like our sixth man. He’s constantly watching film, constantly talking to us in the huddle. Even though he’s not out there, he’s still going to be impactful.”
Josh Richardson doesn't want to replicate Lowry's play-style
The talk of the lack of depth at point guard has been a narrative for the Heat before the season in training camp as besides Lowry, the only other players with true point guard experience is Josh Richardson and Dru Smith, who is out for the season with an ACL sprain. Richardson stressed that he will not try to be like Lowry when he plays and it's a big loss if he's out for an extended amount of time.
“I’m not going to try to be Kyle when I step into that,” Richardson said. “I think we have some good guards. We have RJ when he gets back, myself, Rook can handle. Jimmy, when he gets back, can handle. Bam can handle. Everyone can pretty much handle. Kyle’s a big loss if he does miss time. He’s a very important piece. But I think we have enough to kind of fill his shoes.”
The Heat are 21-15 on the season which puts them fifth in the Eastern Conference. They will have three more games in the home stand, but their next 12 of 17 will also be inside the Kaseya Center starting Wednesday against Oklahoma City.
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