It was a bittersweet return to the lineup for Tyler Herro on Thursday night. The 21-year-old guard scored 19 points in 32 minutes, yet watched the Miami Heat fall 109-105 for their fifth straight loss.
After the game, Herro tried to keep a smile and remain positive behind his protective mask. He still believes the Heat are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference as they await Jimmy Butler’s clearance from health and safety protocols. It’s the same nucleus from a team that took the Los Angeles Lakers to six games in last year’s NBA Finals.
“I’m just trying to help this team get back on track,” Herro told reporters. “You know, we are talented and we are one of the best teams in the East. I’m telling you we can do some things special. This team is as good as last year’s team. We have a great group of guys in this locker room that want to win and want to get better every single day.”
11 pts in the quarter for @raf_tyler
Still fighting.
Herro had missed seven games with neck spasms but stepped right back into a leading role. He didn’t get winded or tired, not even after jacking up 21 field goals.
“It felt amazing to get back out there,” Herro said. “While I was out I tried to keep up with my conditioning, and make sure I stay in Miami Heat shape, and I just felt good just being out there. It was amazing and I had a lot of energy and a lot of adrenaline that just took over.”
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Herro Describes Nagging Neck Injury
Initially, Herro thought he had just slept in an awkward position or weird way. The sharp-shooting guard didn’t think he had suffered a neck injury until he tried to turn his head and felt pain.
“At first, I thought it was just something I had slept on my neck wrong or something,” Herro said. “But I guess the way my neck was responding, it didn’t allow me to go out and play. Every time I would turn my head, I would have some pain in this area.”
.@MiamiHEAT G Tyler Herro on dropping 19 points after missing 7 games in a row with neck spasms.
Now he’s back on the court and already diagnosing what is wrong. Miami has the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 6-12. All-Star center Bam Adebayo has pinned their struggles on poor first quarters, while Herro brought up not playing a complete 48 minutes.
“Biggest lesson for me, I told the team after [the game] to strive to play a full 48 minutes,” Herro said. “I feel like we’re having lapses throughout some of the games where we look good and there are other times we don’t look like ourselves. I don’t know if we get bored with what’s working or what, but we have to figure out how we can play a complete 48 minutes eventually and that’s how we can become the Miami Heat basketball team that we are.”
‘Growing Pains’ Taking Toll on Heat
Adebayo has been the focal part of the Heat offense with Butler out. The 6-foot-9 beast in the middle has added a mid-range jumper to his arsenal. But he struggled with Serge Ibaka’s length on Thursday night and finished with just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting. One fan called him out on social media as Adebayo talked about “growing pains” in his post-game Zoom call.
“Growing pains, man, growing pains. That’s all I have to say to you,” Adebayo said. “We’re trying to figure it out. We’re down bodies, as you can see. We’re playing as hard as we can, trying to get us a win. Like I said, we just got to take one step in front of the other, and keep going, keep pushing, keep staying positive.”
@kingwes__ Watch Your Mouth Sucka.
Miami was down Butler and point guard Goran Dragic (groin) on Thursday, plus center Meyers Leonard (shoulder). And veteran forward Andre Iguodala (neck) was ruled out right before tip-off.
“A lot of dudes playing right now are the young guys, including me,” Adebayo said. “Like, I was looking around the locker room today and we only had two guys that are above three years that played today so just keeping them positive, telling them look we’re going to have a breakthrough and our time is coming. And we gonna figure this out and we gonna to turn our season around.”
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Heat Guard Sounds Off: ‘One of the Best Teams in the East’