Tyler Herro out for Game 4 vs. Celtics, Jimmy Butler intends to play
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Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro will miss Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday because of a left groin strain, head coach Erik Spoelstra told the media on Monday. He is considered day-to-day.
« We just had to really be responsible and take the decision out of his hands, » Spoelstra said, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. « He really wants to be out there. The trainers and Dr. Selesnick don’t think that’s the best idea, because of the intensity and everything. But we’ll see. He’s young. We’ll treat him day-to-day and we’ll see what happens from there. »
Spoelstra said he believes Herro sustained the injury during the first half of Game 3 over the weekend.
« Think it was on a floater, » the coach said. « He doesn’t totally remember. And then there was a closeout on Jaylen Brown on the very next possession. It could have happened during that sequence. »
Other members of the team have sympathy for Herro, who won the 2022 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.
« I feel like he has to be in some serious pain, » center Bam Adebayo said. « He’s our Sixth Man of the Year. In some games, he’s carried us. So that’s the biggest part [of] missing out on Tyler. He can score in bunches. He sees two shots go in and next thing you know he can have 10, 12 [points] in a quarter. »
While Herro’s status for Monday’s game is definitive, the likelihood that Jimmy Butler plays is a little less certain. The swingman plans to warm up and play on Monday after sitting out the second half of Game 3 due to inflammation in his right knee. The injury was potentially caused by a second-quarter run-in with Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard.
Spoelstra said after Monday shootaround he didn’t know if the run-in with Pritchard caused Butler’s injury, but that he didn’t like it either way.
« It was not a basketball play, » he said. « We’re not really sure why it was determined as that was a basketball play, or that that was a legal play, or that was a safe play. We’re not going to say it’s bigger than it was, because we don’t know if that’s what triggered Jimmy’s injury. »
Tip off between the Heat and Celtics is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.
