On-ball Tyler Herro impresses in shorthanded Heat’s loss to Suns. And Nunn re-enters bubble

Without two starters and its sixth man, the Miami Heat managed to keep it close for most of the game.

But the (very) shorthanded Miami Heat (43-27) just didn’t have enough in a 119-112 loss to the streaking Phoenix Suns (31-39) on Saturday night in its fifth of eight seeding games at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. The Heat is 2-3 in seeding play.

The Suns are the only remaining unbeaten team at Disney, as they have now won their first five seeding games in a push to claim the Western Conference’s final playoff spot.

Jimmy Butler (right foot soreness), Goran Dragic (sprained left ankle), Kendrick Nunn (personal reasons) and rookie forward KZ Okpala (personal reasons) did not play for the Heat on Saturday.

“I’m not happy with the way we’re playing,” Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo said following the loss. “We got to get over this hump. We’re in a gray cloud that we can’t get out of. It’s my job as a leader and as a quote unquote vet to really hone in and really lead this team to a victory. Even though we have two major guys out, the next man up and I got do a better job of leading this team to victory.”

It was a close game throughout that included 11 lead changes and six ties.

The Suns entered the fourth quarter with a two-point lead, and extended that lead to as many as nine points in the final period.

The Heat continued to compete throughout, cutting the deficit to three with 31.4 seconds to play.

Adebayo was then called for a goaltend on a Devin Booker layup attempt with 12 seconds remaining. That play extended the Suns’ lead to five, and the Heat didn’t score again.

The Heat’s defense struggled to contain the Suns, which finished with 119 points on 47.8 percent shooting.

Booker led Phoenix with 35 points on 15-of-26 shooting and six assists. Jevon Carter scored 20 points for the Suns off the bench.

Heat to face Suns on Saturday without Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic and Kendrick Nunn

Next up for the Heat is a juicy and important matchup against the Indiana Pacers on Monday at 8 p.m. (Fox Sports Sun).

Five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Suns on Saturday at the VISA Athletic Center:

The Heat played without two starters and its sixth man on Saturday. And as expected, the Heat’s rotation looked very different.

Miami entered the game with 13 available players, and it forced coach Erik Spoelstra had to make some adjustments.

The Heat used its 13th different starting lineup of the season and already its third different starting lineup in five seeding games: Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Derrick Jones Jr., Jae Crowder and Adebayo. This five-man group had not played together in a game before Saturday.

But this starting lineup was effective against against the Suns, posting a plus/minus of plus-eight in 10 minutes.

The Heat’s bench rotation on Saturday included Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk, Solomon Hill and Gabe Vincent.

Vincent, a guard on a two-way contract, logged extended minutes at point guard with Butler, Dragic and Nunn out. In his first action during seeding games, the 24-year-old rookie finished with four points on 2-of-8 shooting in 20 minutes.

As for the Heat’s three rotation players who were unavailable, none are expected to miss extended time.

Butler (right foot soreness) missed his third consecutive game Saturday. An MRI and X-ray revealed no structural damage, and the expectation is that Butler will be ready to return to the court in the coming days.

Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, told The Miami Herald on Friday: “Jimmy had his final scan yesterday. And we understand what he’s dealing with. And he’s working his butt off to get back on the floor ASAP and to be ready for the playoffs.”

Marc Stein from the New York Times reported following Saturday’s game that Butler is on track to make his return Monday against the Pacers.

Dragic, who was able to get on the practice court for shooting drills Friday, missed his second consecutive game on Saturday because of a sprained left ankle. Spoelstra said before the game that Dragic “is making progress.”

Nunn re-entered the NBA bubble just after midnight Sunday, according to a league source familiar with the situation.

Nunn missed Saturday’s game after leaving the NBA bubble because of personal reasons that are not related to COVID-19. He re-entered the league’s Disney campus very early Sunday morning.

It’s still undetermined how many days Nunn will now be required to quarantine after returning to Disney, and that’s ultimately the NBA’s decision. But the hope is, according to a league source, Nunn will need to quarantine for just four days before rejoining the Heat on the court.

Assuming Nunn begins a four-day quarantine Sunday, he would be forced him to miss at least two of the Heat’s final three seeding games — Monday vs. Pacers and Wednesday vs. Oklahoma City Thunder. But it’s possible Nunn could be available for Miami’s eighth and final seeding game — Friday vs. Pacers.

The good news for the Heat is, unless Nunn’s quarantine period is longer than currently expected, the rookie guard will be available for the start of the playoffs.

Length of quarantines are up to the discretion of the NBA and depend on access to testing, where a player was during his absence and other factors. Nunn was believed to have access to testing while he was away.

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson served a four-day quarantine when he returned to the NBA campus after he left to tend to a family medical emergency. Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams was placed in a 10-day quarantine after he left to attend a funeral, but he was also found to have dined at a gentleman’s club in Atlanta.

Nunn, who was named Saturday as one of three finalists for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award, played in each of the Heat’s first four seeding games. He averaged 7.8 points while shooting 32.4 percent from the field and 25 percent on threes in 20.9 minutes during that four-game stretch.

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With three of the Heat’s top four scorers out, Herro played as the team’s point guard and stepped up in a big way. But it wasn’t enough.

Miami’s 20-year-old rookie made his seventh start of the season Saturday and helped fill a chunk of the scoring void with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, 1-of-4 shooting on threes and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line. He also finished with eight rebounds and a career-high 10 assists in 36 minutes.

It marked the most points Herro has recorded in a game since he scored 25 in a win over the Washington Wizards on Jan. 22.

“I felt comfortable,” Herro said of playing as Miami’s point guard. “I’ve been working with the ball in my hands really since the beginning of the season. And now in the bubble, I’ve working really hard with the ball in my hands. Coach has been helping me a lot. My teammates are starting to trust me more. I’m still young and I’m learning a lot.”

Herro was aggressive from the start, scoring 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line in the first quarter.

There were many impressive moments from Herro on Saturday, with the Heat using him almost exclusively in an on-ball role.

“Basically he was playing point guard for us, and I thought he did a solid job,” Spoelstra said. “He’ll continue to get better. Yesterday he had a really good day of work. It was basically quarterback-read training and learning how to make the appropriate play when defenses step up their pressure. And just to understand which reads he has. Sometimes that’s assertive to the rim, sometimes that’s to get off the ball and find the open man. And he’s getting better with that.”

Not only did he set a new career-high in assists, but he also did most of his damage around the basket. Herro finished the loss with a 6-of-7 shooting performance from inside the restricted area, and five of those made shots at the rim came on drives, according to NBA Advanced Stats.

Herro said playing as a point guard is nothing new for him.

“I’ve always had the ball in my hands. High school, obviously. And then in college a little bit,” he said. “I’m just playing a role right now. Whatever the team needs me to do, when my name is called is what I do. So I feel like I could impact the game in other ways than just shooting. But whatever the teams me to do right now, I do.”

Herro, who has said in the past that he studies Booker’s game closely, held his own in his matchup against the Suns’ All-Star guard. But Booker still came out of it with 35 points and the win.

“It’s definitely a learning experience for me,” Herro said. “Being a natural scorer, or shooter ... it’s kind of hard to just balance the two. But it’s a learning experience knowing when to be in attack mode and then when to set guys up. So I watched the film. I’m sure I missed some guys opens tonight. I could have made the better play. So I’m continuing to learn. It’s all a learning experience for me.”

In addition, Adebayo was solid and came close to notching his fourth triple-double. The Heat All-Star center finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and three blocks in 30 minutes.

It was a nice bounce-back game for Adebayo, who scored just six points in Thursday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I felt great today,” said Adebayo, who admitted Friday that he felt like he was still catching up physically after arriving to Disney two weeks later than the team because of a COVID-19 diagnosis. “Once I got out there and started actually hooping and not worrying about my body, my mind kind of took over. I feel 100 percent again.”

Crowder continues to make threes at an impressive rate.

The veteran forward finished Saturday’s game with 17 points on 4-of-5 shooting on threes in 27 minutes despite battling foul trouble for most of the game. He was called for his third foul with 4:08 remaining in the second quarter and he picked up his fourth foul with 9:46 remaining in the third quarter.

Crowder, 30, has now made 17 of 29 threes (58.6 percent) during the first five seeding games. It’s just a continuation of his hot shooting since the Memphis Grizzlies traded him to the Heat in February, as he has made 44.1 percent of his threes in 18 games with the Miami.

That’s a big jump from earlier this season. Crowder, who has shot 33.8 percent on threes during his NBA career, made just 29.3 percent of his three-pointers in 45 games with the Grizzlies this season.

The Heat continues to hold on to the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 spot. But it’s only because of a tiebreaker.

With Miami losing and Indiana defeating the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, the Heat and Pacers own the same 43-27 record. But Miami remains in fourth place because it holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after winning its first two meetings against Indiana this season.

The Heat and Pacers are just one-half game ahead of the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers.

The possibility of Miami entering the playoffs as the No. 4 or No. 5 seed — no difference between the two because there is no real home-court advantage in the bubble — is still more likely than not, with only three seeding games remaining. But two of those games come against the Pacers, which will go a long way in determining where the Heat finishes in the conference and which team it faces in the first round.

The good news for Miami is that it has already clinched the tiebreaker over Philadelphia and Indiana.

Moving up to the No. 3 spot is no longer possible for the Heat. Miami is 3.5 games behind the third-place Boston Celtics, with just three seeding games remaining to play.