There hasn’t been much good Miami Heat injury news lately, but there were some positive developments that came out of Thursday’s practice.
Heat guard Tyler Herro, who has not played since Feb. 23, has entered the ramp-up phase in his recovery from right foot medial tendinitis. Herro was on the court and went through a shooting workout following Thursday’s practice at Kaseya Center.
“He’s on that next phase of his return,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday when asked about Herro’s status. “We don’t have a timeline, but yeah it’s definitely encouraging that he’s able to get on the wood and start to get ready. So this is part of the ramp up, this is part of the plan.”
Herro, 24, remains out for Friday’s matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers at Kaseya Center (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) because of the injury, marking the 17th straight game that he has has missed. But the expectation is that Herro will play again this season if his foot continues to respond well to treatment.
Herro received a platelet-rich plasma injection on his injured foot on March 15 to speed up the recovery process.
PRP injections usually require no activity for one week after the shot is administered, but then the ramping up process takes place in the second and third weeks. If Herro is able to come back three weeks following the injection, he could potentially return during the Heat’s final trip of the regular season that begins on April 5 against the Houston Rockets.
There’s more good news on the injury front for the Heat besides Herro’s progress.
▪ Love, who has missed the last 14 games because of a bruised right heel and was not at Thursday’s practice because of personal reasons, is on track to make his return on Friday against the Trail Blazers. He was upgraded to probable for the contest and Spoelstra sounded cautiously optimistic regarding the possibility of a Friday return for Love.
“He’s made tremendous progress,” Spoelstra said of Love on Thursday. “His status will be upgraded tomorrow and we’ll just see how he feels.”
The Heat also listed Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left ankle discomfort) and Caleb Martin (right ankle discomfort) as probable. Jaquez and Martin played through these lingering ailments on Tuesday.
▪ The Heat ruled out Herro, Josh Richardson (season-ending right shoulder surgery), Duncan Robinson (left facet syndrome), Orlando Robinson (G League), Cole Swider (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) for Friday’s game against the Trail Blazers.
Duncan Robinson, who will miss his fifth straight game on Friday because of his back issue, was able to take part in some work during Thursday’s practice.
“There’s a lot of encouraging things,” Spoelstra said. “With the guys that have been out, everybody’s been making really good progress.”
With 10 games left in the regular season, it appears the Heat is slowly getting healthier as it battles to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament
“You have to balance all of this,” Spoelstra said of navigating the Heat’s injury issues. “Right now, it has to be this idea of all hands on deck, but it has to be in an intelligent way. We’re trying to get guys back out there as quickly as we possibly can, they’re doing whatever they have to do around the clock to make themselves available.
“Ultimately, all of this becomes about committing to something bigger than yourself, to the team whatever you can give at this time of the year. And then each case is different, everybody’s body is different, everybody’s rehab is different, everybody’s place in that part of the ramp-up is different and we have to treat that accordingly. But we’re getting guys back, we’re encouraged by the progress.”
PROGRAMMING NOTE
The Heat announced that effective Friday, all remaining Heat regular-season and postseason Spanish-language game broadcasts can be found on MIX 98.3 FM (WRTO). This includes all pregame and postgame programming.
Spanish broadcasts will also continue to be available on ESPN Deportes 760 AM, the Miami Heat app and Univision’s Uforia app.
