NBA Finals 2023: Heat’s Tyler Herro is still working toward injury return, but how much could he help Miami?

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Tyler Herro dived for a loose ball with about a minute left in the first half of the Miami Heat’s first game of the first round. He took a while to get up, and, when he did, he initially ran off the floor to the locker room. When he realized the Heat were in the middle of an offensive possession, he stationed himself in the corner, grabbing at his right hand and wincing in pain. When Gabe Vincent passed him the ball anyway, he took the open shot but missed it horribly. 

Herro stayed on the floor for the remainder of the half, then was done for the game and, in all likelihood, the season. The Heat announced that he’d fractured his right hand. They won the series opener, but, by the time they announced that he’d undergone surgery and was expected to miss a minimum of six weeks, the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks had tied the series 1-1 with franchise player Giannis Antetokounmpo sitting out Game 2.

Miami had finished the season 44-38, with a negative point differential and the 25th-best offense in the NBA. Herro averaged 20.1 points on 56.6% true shooting, and his 25% usage rate was slightly higher than Jimmy Butler’s. The Heat needed his shotmaking — he made 36.9% of his pull-up 3s on good volume — and they needed his two-man game with Bam Adebayo, it seemed. Losing him looked like a blow to their already slim chances against Milwaukee.

Then the Heat blew out the Bucks in Game 3, with Duncan Robinson, who didn’t play a single second in the first half of Game 1, scoring 20 points in 23 minutes. They won Game 4, too, with Butler scoring 56 points and Caleb Martin making a couple of clutch jumpers. In Game 5, Butler dropped 42 and they pulled off a come-from-behind, overtime victory, with Vincent adding 22 and Kevin Love shooting 5-for-11 from deep, stunning the Bucks the same way they did in the 2020 bubble.

And now, like the bubble, Miami is in the NBA Finals, having dispatched of the New York Knicks and upset the No. 2-seeded Boston Celtics. Last Friday marked six weeks since Herro had surgery, and multiple reports before the…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-2023-heats-tyler-herro-is-still-working-toward-injury-return-but-how-much-could-he-help-miami/

Author : James Herbert

Publish date : 2023-06-05 20:41:54

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