As soon as Jimmy Butler sank a game-winning buzzer-beater on Saturday night, his Miami Heat co-stars Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro ran on the court with the rest of their teammates to celebrate the victory. But Adebayo and Herro were in street clothes, not in uniform, as they mobbed Butler after his buzzer-beating step-back jumper lifted the Heat (15-11) to a 118-116 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at Kaseya Center. Adebayo and Herro will soon be back in uniform, though, with both players cleared to make their return from injury in Monday’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m, Bally Sports Sun). Their returns come after Adebayo missed nine of the last 12 games and seven straight games with a left hip contusion and Herro missed the last 18 games with a sprained right ankle.
The only Heat players ruled out for the final game of the team’s four-game homestand are Kyle Lowry (soreness) and Dru Smith (season-ending knee injury). Monday will be just the second game that the 37-year-old Lowry has missed and the first game he has sat out since Nov. 12.
Reliving Jimmy Butler’s game-winning buzzer-beater and takeaways from Heat’s win over Bulls
“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Butler said just minutes after his walk-off game-winner when asked about the impending returns of Adebayo and Butler. “I just want guys to get back and we all hoop together. That’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to jinx anything.”
One thing is for sure, the returns of Adebayo and Herro are going to create some tough rotation decisions for a Heat team that has showcased its impressive depth amid its early-season injury issues. Injuries have forced the Heat to use 14 different starting lineups through the first 26 games.
“It’s going to be lovely getting everybody back, figuring out the rotation with guys and matchups,” Heat forward Caleb Martin said. With forward Haywood Highsmith and guard Josh Richardson returning from their own injuries to play in Saturday’s dramatic win over the Bulls, the Heat went with a 10-man rotation in the victory despite not having Adebayo and Herro available.
The Heat opened the game with a starting lineup of Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Butler, Martin and Orlando Robinson. Miami’s bench rotation included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kevin Love, Richardson, Highsmith and Thomas Bryant. Adebayo and Herro have established themselves as fixtures in the Heat’s starting lineup and are two of the Heat’s best three players along with Butler. So their returns are naturally going to lead to big changes within the rotation, but the infusion Adebayo and Herro is also going to make the Heat an even deeper team.
Aside from the leading trio of Adebayo, Butler and Herro, nearly every player in the Heat’s rotation is either in the middle of a career-best year or exceeding outside expectations this season. Lowry is shooting a career-best 43.9 percent from three-point range. Duncan Robinson is averaging career-highs in points (14.7 per game) and assists (3) while shooting an efficient 43.6 percent from behind the arc. He became the fastest player in NBA history to make 900 career three-pointers, doing it during Saturday’s win over the Bulls in his 305th regular-season game.
Jaquez, who was named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in October and November, finished Saturday’s win with double-digit points for the 13th straight game. That’s the second-longest such streak for a Heat rookie in franchise history behind only a 15-game double-digit streak from Dwyane Wade in 2003. Martin is averaging career-highs in points (12.6), rebounds (5) and assists (2.4). Love, who has taken over as the Heat’s backup center, is averaging 11.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 42.6 percent from three-point range over the last 10 games. For the season, the Heat has outscored opponents by 10.6 points per 100 possessions with Love on the court.
Highsmith is averaging career-highs in points (6.2), assists (1.5), steals (1.1), blocks (0.7) and minutes (21.7) this season. “It’s really going to show how deep this team is,” Love said when asked about getting Adebayo and Herro back. “I think in ways, we’re not going to surprise ourselves, but we’re going to surprise people in that we have a very deep bench. Guys that can fill a lot of spots, guys that can play different positions night in and night out. But we’re missing a lot of fire power, as well, and we’re missing guys on both sides of the ball.” Before their injuries, Adebayo and Herro were both off to their own career-best seasons.
Adebayo is averaging career-highs in points (22.3) and field-goal attempts (15.8) to go with 9.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season. He’s played in 16 of the Heat’s first 26 games. Herro is averaging career-highs in points (22.9), assists (4.6) and steals (1.4) while shooting career-best 44.7 percent from the field and 41 percent from three-point range this season.
He’s played in eight of the Heat’s first 26 games. The Heat’s three best players — Adebayo, Butler and Herro — have all been available for just six of the first 26 games. “Getting Tyler and Bam back is going to be huge for us and it just gives us that much more depth,” Love said, “especially with guys that mean so much to this team and are incredibly high-level players and mean so much to the organization.” While the Heat has still managed to reach Sunday with the East’s fifth-best record despite all of the injuries, there are clear issues that Adebayo and Herro will help address.
The Heat’s defense has been bad recently, entering Sunday with the NBA’s 13th-ranked defensive rating (allowing 114 points per 100 possessions) for the season and 25th-ranked defensive rating (allowing 121.1 points per 100 possessions) over the last 10 games. The Heat has also been one of the league’s worst late-game teams this season, entering Sunday with the NBA’s 28th-ranked fourth-quarter offensive rating, 26th-ranked fourth-quarter defensive rating and 29th-ranked fourth-quarter net rating.
The Heat’s schedule is about to get a lot tougher, too, with nine of the next 12 games coming against teams that currently stand above the .500 mark. It begins Monday against the team with the top record in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves. The Heat is 11-2 this season against teams that currently hold a losing record, but just 4-9 against teams with a winning record. “We haven’t seen the other side of this team, what we have yet,” Martin said. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s just the surface right now, we haven’t really gotten to dig too deep with everybody being out and seeing the potential with lineups and matchups down the stretch. So I’m excited for those guys (Adebayo and Herro) to get back. They’re just only going to make us better.”
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