Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Herro out with back spasms
Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro missed his third consecutive game Wednesday night, still dealing with the neck spasms that surfaced during the team’s previous trip.
“I don’t have a new update for you, other than he’s making progress,” coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday.
In addition to being without Herro against the Toronto Raptors at the start of the fourgame trip that continues Friday with another game against the Raptors in Tampa, the Heat remain without guard Jimmy Butler and Avery Bradley, who are in coronavirus protocol and missed their fifth consecutive games. Also, center Meyers Leonard remains sidelined by a shoulder strain.
Herro, who had been starting at point guard prior to the recent string of absences, turned 21 Wednesday. Herro earlier this season became the first Heat player with a 30-point regular-season performance prior to his 21st birthday.
Spoelstra declined to specify whether Herro has returned to practice.
As for Butler and Bradley, prior to Wednesday’s game, the NBA announced:
“Of the 502 players tested for COVID-19 since Jan. 13, 11 new players have returned confirmed positive tests.
“Anyone who has returned a confirmed positive test, or
has been identified as having been in close contact to an infected person, is isolated or quarantined until they are cleared under the rules established by the NBA and the Players Association in accordance with CDC guidance.”
Different road
With NBA protocols limiting teams to hotels, practice courts or arenas on the road, Spoelstra said this four-game trip, which continues Saturday and Monday against the Brooklyn Nets, presents unique mental-health tests.
“This is a challenge for everybody,” he said. “I think something as rudimentary as getting on a bus and going to practice becomes eventful, even if you’re not really planning on doing anything. Or even on a day when we have a back-to-back, we probably are going to do that, just to get out of the hotel.”
For rookie forward Precious Achiuwa, who moved to the New York area from Nigeria when he was in eighth grade, the Nets games would have been a homecoming during typical times.
“With everything going on right now, actually I haven’t thought about it like that,” he said. “We won’t be able to leave our hotel. Right now it’s a different atmosphere. It won’t even feel like I’m going back to New York. It’s another game, really.”
Degree of separation
While Spoelstra previously was reluctant to play Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo together because of overlap in their games, he said the thinking is different when it comes to keeping Adebayo and Achiuwa in separate lineups.
Going into Wednesday night’s game, Adebayo and Achiuwa had played just one minute together this season, with Spoelstra not wanting to overload Achiuwa with nuances about playing alongside another post-based big man.
“Defensively, they would wreak a lot of havoc just with their size and quickness and physicality,” Spoelstra said. “But we’re trying to simplify as much as we can for Precious.
“So early on, I don’t anticipate you’ll see much of it. You’ll see it maybe at times, and that’s not a criticism or an indictment at all. This is about trying to fast-track success as quickly as possible without your normal ramp-up. That’s pretty much the deal right now.”