Herro, Love and Richardson still aren’t available
The Heat’s injury issues continue.
The Heat ruled out three rotation players for Tuesday’s game against the visiting Detroit Pistons. The three unavailable are guard Tyler Herro (right foot tendinitis), forwardcenter Kevin Love (right heel bruise) and guard Josh Richardson (right shoulder dislocation).
Herro will miss his fifth straight game and 25th game of the season. He has been dealing with a hyperextended left knee and a sore right foot recently, but he has since recovered from his knee injury and is now missing time because of his foot.
Love will miss his third straight game and Richardson will miss his eighth straight game with their respective injuries.
Center Bam Adebayo and forward Caleb Martin are both expected to be available Tuesday despite coming out of Saturday’s home win over the Utah Jazz in some pain. Adebayo is not on the injury report and Martin is listed as available despite a right thumb sprain.
The Heat entered Monday with the fourth-most missed games in the NBA this season due to injury at 200 games, according to Spotrac’s tracker.
The Pistons, who entered Monday tied for the NBA’s worst record at 9-51, ruled out Buddy Boeheim, Tosan Evbuomwan, Jaren Rhoden and Stanley Umude, all because of G League assignments. Quentin Grimes (right knee soreness) is listed as doubtful.
COACH OF THE MONTH
The Heat’s Erik Spoelstra
is the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in February, the NBA announced.
The Heat bounced back after a rough January that included a 6-10 record to go 8-3 in February despite injuries that forced Miami to use eight different starting lineups in February.
This marks the franchise-record 10th time that Spoelstra has been named the East’s Coach of the Month during his 16 seasons as the Heat head coach. This is the first time that Spoelstra has received the honor since December 2021.
Golden State’s Steve Kerr was named the Western Conference Coach of the Month.
TWO-WAY DEADLINE
Monday marked the final day for NBA teams to sign players to two-way contracts, with the deadline at 11:59 p.m.
The Heat is currently at the three-player maximum for two-way deals, with Jamal Cain, Cole Swider
and Alondes Williams
signed to such contracts.
The expectation was that the Heat would not swap out one of its twoway contract players for a new face ahead of Monday’s deadline. The twoway contracts for Cain, Swider and Williams are already guaranteed for the season, but players on two-way deals are not eligible to take part in the playoffs.
FAMILY FEST
The Heat held its 24th annual Family Festival on Sunday at Kaseya Center. Players, coaches and executives attended, giving fans an opportunity to mingle with them. The event helped raise $502,150 for the Jackson Health Foundation.