What is the Heat’s postseason plan for Kyle Lowry? Also, Tyler Herro’s free throws

The Miami Heat has taken a cautious approach with veteran guard Kyle Lowry since he returned from injury last month. The Heat will continue to be careful with Lowry, but the expectation is he’ll be able to play more minutes this postseason.

“Very comfortable,” Lowry said ahead of Tuesday’s play-in tournament game against the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center when asked if he’s comfortable ramping up his minutes now that the regular season is over.

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Lowry, 37, missed 15 straight games because of left knee soreness before returning a month ago on March 11. Since then, he averaged 23.1 minutes per game in a bench role over his final 11 appearances of the regular season and sat out one game during each of the Heat’s three back-to-back sets during this span.

While Lowry probably won’t get back up to the 33.3 minutes per game he averaged in his first 44 appearances of the season before missing 15 games with left knee pain, he’ll likely see an increased workload for as long as the Heat’s postseason lasts.

“It’s played out, so far, as good as we could have planned,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the postseason plan for Lowry. “When we were starting this process two months ago, you just don’t know how it’s going to end up. But I thought we were very disciplined except for the head coach the first game he came back.”

Lowry logged 36 minutes in his first game back in a March 11 loss to the Orlando Magic, but has averaged 21.7 minutes per game in his 10 appearances since then.

“Once we got past that, we settled into a routine and we all felt good about it,” Spoelstra continued. “The communication was great. He was able to play really effectively and, the most important thing, feel really good the next day and we were able to build on that. That is a great piece of news that he’ll be able to play more minutes.”

Lowry has been solid since returning from injury. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 46.6 percent from the field and 42.5 percent on 3.6 three-point attempts per game in his final 11 appearances of the regular season after coming back.

Lowry shot just 39.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc in his first 44 appearances of the season before putting a pause on his season to rest and rehab his sore knee.

“I was hurt,” Lowry said when asked about his improved numbers since returning from injury. “I was playing on one leg and I’m still not fully healthy like I want to be. When you play through an NBA season, it looks bad when you don’t make excuses and I don’t make excuses. So I was playing on a really hurt leg and I’ve had time to recover and get to a spot where I was very comfortable in playing. It helps.”

Lowry battled through left knee pain for a large chunk of the season. He missed two games because of left knee soreness in December and four games because of left knee discomfort in January before finally stepping away for 15 games to focus on his troublesome left knee. The injury has required treatment to manage the pain.

“I pushed through it for three months and it was a lot,” Lowry said. “I know numbers say this, that or the other. But in our league, you can’t play against the best players in the world not healthy both offensively and defensively. For me, it’s just like I had to get right to help this team long term.”

Lowry, who is in the second season of a three-year contract worth $85 million, said he’s not sure yet if he’ll need to undergo surgery on his left knee when the season comes to an end.

“I don’t know,” Lowry said when asked whether a procedure will be needed on his knee. “We’ll get to that point when it’s there.”

HERRO’S FREE THROWS

Tyler Herro didn’t merely lead the league in free-throw shooting percentage, at 93.4. He also achieved a level of accuracy that hasn’t been surpassed in nine years.

The last qualifying player to shoot free throws at a higher percentage than Herro over a full season was Brian Roberts, who shot 94 percent in 2013-14. Since that season by Roberts, only Chris Paul shot free throws as well as Herro (93.4 percent) over a full season; Paul did it 2020-21.

Kevin Durant finished second behind Herro this season at 91.9.

Herro said converting from the line something he takes very seriously.

“I shoot free throws every day, every workout throughout the summer,” he said. “I start and finish practices with free throws. I made 25 in a row the other day to finish practice.”

Herro made 170 of 182 free throws this season. In the fourth quarter, he was 42 for 42, which marked the most made fourth-quarter free throws without a miss, in a season, since the NBA began charting that in 1997. Before Herro this season, the most made free throws in the fourth quarter without a miss — over those 25 years — was 31 by Roberts in 2012-13.

Herro shot 87.0, 80.3 and 86.8 on free throws in his first three seasons.

“I led the country in free throw percentage in college,” Herro said, referring to his 2018-19 season at Kentucky when he shot 87 for 93, 93.5 percent. “This year, I wanted to refocus on getting my numbers back to where I think it should be — in the 90s.”

He said the turning point for him happened as an eighth grader, when he learned to hit free throws without disruptive lower body motion.

“I remember I used to jump on my free throws,” he said. “Around my eighth grade year, I was able to shoot from the free-throw line without jumping and was strong enough to shoot it without jumping.”