Tyler Herro deemed 100% by Erik Spoelstra as Heat clean up injury report
The good news on the Miami Heat’s injury report is that there is no injury report.
While the Heat, like the rest of the NBA, are not revealing the results of the league’s ongoing COVID-19 testing amid the new coronavirus pandemic, coach Erik Spoelstra spoke Sunday of a clean sheet from the training room.
“Guys are getting their legs under ‘em,” Spoelstra said. “Soreness is starting to also arise, as expected. But I’ve been encouraged by the practices and the work and the normalcy it feels like, of being back in the gym working together.”
The Heat went into the NBA’s March 11 shutdown with guard Tyler Herro just one game back from a 15-game absence due to ankle soreness and center Meyers Leonard still sidelined from the severe ankle sprain that has had him out since Feb. 5.
“It’s good to have the guys that were out back, Meyers and Tyler,” Spoelstra said after guiding his team through practice on the makeshift court at a Disney World ballroom. “Tyler looks 100 percent, for sure. The time off served him well and he’s moving great and providing all of that skill set that he does.”
Herro and Leonard went down before the Heat acquired Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill at the Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline, making this an on-court introduction of sorts.
“To get this time on the court with them and figure out their tendencies, we get to know each other on the court,” Crowder said Sunday. “It’ll be good for us moving forward
The Heat also went into the break with two-way player Kyle Alexander, the rookie forward out of Tennessee, yet to make his NBA debut, due to an injured right knee.
“He’s going full go,” Spoelstra said. “He spent a lot of time the last several weeks really working on his body, working on his rehab, and his conditioning and his strength. So we’re really encouraged where he is right now.”
Also back at work is forward Derrick Jones Jr., who had to step away from the team last month after a positive COVID test.
“I’m not evaluating that, because everybody’s in a different spot, really, physically, because of the uniqueness of these circumstances,” Spoelstra said of Jones’ conditioning, while not directly addressing the testing element. “But it’s good to have him out here.”
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Before Friday’ first of three practices on the NBA’s quarantined campus, the Heat had been limited, by NBA edict, to individual workouts.
“That’s what we’re looking at right now, is just continuing to move the train forward, get guys on the court and get them improving every single day,” Spoelstra said. “Get them moving and getting comfortable with basketball movements, not just one-on-one, or one-on-oh. But more team-related stuff.”
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Also Sunday from Disney:
— Crowder said he will wear “Black Lives Matter” on the back of his jersey for the resumption of the regular season, “I’m behind the movement and I just want to speak on the good side of it, and what the whole movement is about.”
— Guard Duncan Robinson said he chose “Say Their Names” for the back of his jersey, “I feel it demands the conversation to be had and it pushes it to the forefront.”
— Robinson, on the ongoing daily COVID-19 testing, “The uncertainty is definitely a variable of this. It will definitely be a challenge.”
— Several Heat players gathered Saturday night at the team’s private lounge to watch the UFC card. The lounge features family pictures. “It touched me,” Crowder said. “I’m sure it touched a lot of our other players, to see their families, and knowing every day we’ll see that wall, which is a good thing for us mentally.”
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