Tyler Herro Likely Out At Least Five Games With Rib Injury
Heat guard Tyler Herro recently underwent an MRI which revealed a costochondral injury on the right side of his ribs, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
Herro, who didn’t travel to Golden State ahead of Monday’s contest, is expected to miss Miami’s entire five-game road trip, Chiang writes. After making 77 appearances en route to his first All-Star game in 2024/25, Herro has been limited to just 11 games thus far in ’25/26 due to offseason ankle surgery, a toe contusion, and now the rib issue.
Costochondral refers to the joints where ribs connect to cartilage, according to Chiang, who writes that it can be a very painful injury which is typically a matter of pain tolerance. Herro, who turns 26 years old tomorrow, has averaged 21.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.0 steal on .497/.358/.902 shooting this season (31.7 minutes per game).
Herro also missed Saturday’s win over Oklahoma City, so Monday will mark his second straight absence. There’s no official timeline for the seventh-year guard’s return, per Chiang.
On a more positive note for the Heat, starting point guard Davion Mitchell and sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. are both expected to return on Monday. Both players have been sidelined for the past two games with shoulder and knee injuries, respectively, but they’re probable to suit up against the Warriors.
Miami is currently 22-20, the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Heat Notes: Ware, Haslem, Midway Point, Grades, Powell, Wiggins
Heat second-year big man Kel’el Ware continues to frustrate the coaching staff with his inconsistency. Ware was benched during the second half of the team’s loss to Boston on Thursday and coach Erik Spoelstra called him out afterward, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes.
“It was a tough matchup for him in Boston with all the coverages, and the same thing (Thursday),” Spoelstra said. “He just has to stay ready. Look, with Kel’el, I know that’s a lightning-rod topic. He needs to get back to where he was eight weeks ago, seven weeks ago, where I felt and everybody in the building felt, he was stacking days, good days. He’s stacking days in the wrong direction now. He’s just got to get back to that. Stack days, build those habits, make sure you’re ready and play the minutes that you’re playing to a point where it makes me want to play you more.”
Former Heat player Udonis Haslem said during a Prime Video appearance that Ware needs to make the coaches believe he’s deserving of more playing time.
“Put them in a position to earn their money,” Haslem said. “Put them in a position to say, ‘He is one of our top seven or right guys, he should be playing. Let me figure out ways to get him more minutes because he deserves those minutes.’ I understand your minutes are going to fluctuate based on the situation with coaches. There is nothing you can do about it. But what you can do is every time you step out on the basketball court, make sure your minutes are impactful, make sure your minutes are positive.”
Bam Adebayo made similar comments to the media.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- With a 21-20 record at the midway point of the season, Miami hasn’t played to its potential, in Spoelstra’s view. “We feel like we’re better than where we are, but we are what our record is right now. That’s the bottom line,” the Heat coach said, per Chiang. “If you play games on paper, I think right now we would have a better record. But that’s not the case right now.” Adebayo believes the players need to be more focused and mentally tougher. “We are better than what our record says,” he said. “But until all of us commit to doing role-player things, we’ll keep being in the middle of the pack, mediocre. Until guys get sick of that middle ground of being seventh, eighth and not want to really make a push to be fourth or third in the East, we’re going to stay right here.”
- The Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman hands out midseason grades and gives Norman Powell an A and Jaime Jaquez Jr. an A-. Disappointing offseason acquisition Simone Fontecchio was awarded a D-.
- In the same story, Winderman opines that the front office might be better off trading Powell and Andrew Wiggins, noting the team is wallowing in mediocrity and could help its long-term outlook by acquiring draft capital. Powell will be an unrestricted free agent after the season while Wiggins holds a player option worth over $30.1MM for next season.
Injury Notes: Garland, Merrill, Heat, Coulibaly, Pritchard
Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland has been ruled out of Friday’s game at Philadelphia due to right great toe soreness, tweets Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. As Fedor notes, Garland’s injury is not a recurrence of the toe ailment that required offseason surgery and has bothered him for several months — the injury is impacting a different toe on the opposite foot.
Cleveland will also be without sharpshooter Sam Merrill on Friday, per Fedor (Twitter link). Merrill is dealing with a right hand sprain, the same injury that caused him to miss 14 games earlier in the season. Both players were injured in Wednesday’s win in Philadelphia.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Heat will be down two key rotation members for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma City, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter links). Starting point guard Davion Mitchell will miss his second straight game with a left shoulder contusion, while sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. will be out for the second consecutive contest due to a left knee sprain. As Chiang writes for The Miami Herald, Jaquez underwent an MRI on Thursday which revealed irritation in his knee. Mitchell had not received an MRI as of Thursday. Guard Tyler Herro is questionable for tomorrow’s game due to contusions on his toe and rib.
- Forward Bilal Coulibaly, who exited Wednesday’s loss at the Clippers early due to a back injury, will miss the final two games of the Wizards‘ West Coast road trip with what the team is calling lower back stiffness, as Josh Robbins of The Athletic relays (via Twitter). Head coach Brian Keefe said the former lottery pick has returned to D.C. to receive treatment for his back.
- Celtics guard Payton Pritchard is doubtful to suit up for Saturday’s game at Atlanta due to left ankle soreness, per John Karalis of Sports Illustrated (Twitter link). Pritchard, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, has appeared in all 40 of Boston’s games thus far in 2025/26. Forward Josh Minott will miss his seventh straight contest due to a left ankle sprain, Karalis adds.
Heat Notes: Powell, Herro, Jaquez, Rebounding
Heat guard Norman Powell was forced out of Saturday’s game against Minnesota early in the first quarter with tightness in his right hamstring, but he was determined to keep playing, Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald writes in a subscriber-only story. Powell not only returned to score a team-high 21 points, he was active on Sunday as well, pouring in 34 points in a victory over New Orleans.
“I like thugging things out is what I like to say,” Powell explained. “I’m not a person that’s going to sit out or pull myself out of the game with certain injuries. If I’m able to play and I feel that I’m able to go out there and produce and be helpful for my team, I’m going to go do that no matter what the injury is. … I’m just a player that’s going to play through all the bumps and bruises unless I physically can’t go out there and play. I don’t want to take the game for granted. We’ve only got a limited number of games and time in this league, so I want to take advantage of every second of it.”
Powell is proving to be a valuable addition for Miami after being acquired from the Clippers in an offseason trade. L.A. was reluctant to commit to an extension for Powell, who has a $20.5MM expiring contract, but he appears to have a much better shot at a long-term deal with the Heat as he’s leading the team in scoring at 24.4 PPG.
“We’re getting to know him, he trusts his body, he knows his body better than anybody,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He said he was good. He did pass the protocols once he came back to the locker room. … Norm was fine the rest of the way, except for when he was getting clubbed in the head those two possessions in the fourth.”
There’s more from Miami:
- Tyler Herro, who has only been available once in the last 13 games due to a right big toe contusion, was in uniform Sunday night even though there were no plans to use him, Chiang notes in the same piece. Herro will travel with the team on its four-game road trip and could be back on the court Tuesday at Minnesota.
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat out Sunday’s game with a sprained right ankle he suffered Saturday night, Chiang adds. It was just the second time this season that Jaquez hasn’t been able to play. “I just tried running, tried running, tried moving around on it, and it wasn’t really feeling right,” Jaquez said in explaining why he couldn’t return to the game on Saturday. “So that’s what caused that decision.”
- Powell says the Heat are “definitely not” where they want to be with a 20-16 record as they approach mid-season, Chiang states in a separate story. The team has been through hot and cold stretches, but has used a strong rebounding performance to win five of its last six games. “I think lately what really has become an identity is Bam (Adebayo), Kel’el (Ware), (Andrew Wiggins) putting pressure on the boards,” Pelle Larsson said. “And if we can do that, we can push the pace and do that, people are going to get really tired of us.”
Heat Notes: Jaquez, Larsson, Adebayo, Herro
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has become one of the NBA’s top reserves in his third season, and his Heat teammates view him as a legitimate contender for Sixth Man of the Year honors, Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald writes in a subscriber-only story. Jaquez, who has started just once in his 33 appearances this season, leads the league with 530 points off the bench and is at or near the top in several other categories.
“He definitely should be in the category for Sixth Man of the Year,” Norman Powell said. “He’s been doing a great job all year in putting his imprint on the game and helping us win close games or helping us open up some games with his play style and the force of his downhill attacks that he comes with every single night.”
Jaquez was a member of the All-Rookie Team in 2024, but he suffered through a disappointing second season and was eventually pulled from the rotation. He acknowledges that it took a lot of “hard work” to bring his game back up to the standards of his first year.
“You realize how much you love basketball, how much fun it is to play every single night,” Jaquez said. “It’s really just having fun out there. It’s not fun not playing. Everybody wants to get on the court, so I’m just appreciating how fun the sport is.”
There’s more from Miami:
- Pelle Larsson is missing his second straight game tonight with a sprained right ankle, Chiang adds. Larsson had been listed as questionable, but he was downgraded to out shortly before game time.
- The Heat have received trade inquiries about Bam Adebayo, but are refusing to consider parting with their star big man, according to NBA analyst Zach Lowe (Twitter video link). “Would they ever include Bam in a package to clear their books and pivot to a younger direction? Other teams I know have for sure asked about Bam and have been told ‘Hell no,’” Lowe said. “As they sniff around at Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and other star players, all of those star players want to play with Bam. I do think the Heat will more than sniff around with Giannis’ situation.”
- With the Heat hoping to have Tyler Herro return soon from a toe contusion, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel (subscription required) talked to Hawks coach Quin Snyder about the difficulty of reintroducing a dominant scorer, since Snyder has been going through the same experience with Trae Young. “A process, that’s what it is,” Snyder said. “And it’s a long runway. Everybody is not going to be acclimated to one another like immediately. … It’s minor adjustments for a lot of guys. And there’s a critical mass of things that you’re going through. You just keep working at it.”
Heat Notes: Larsson, Jaquez, Jovic, Ware
During a light portion of the Heat‘s schedule last month, guard Pelle Larsson missed five games (over 11 days) due to a sprained right ankle. As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes, Larsson sprained his left ankle on Monday against Denver and could end up missing a similar amount of games — the team plays five times over the next eight days.
“Comparing how it was when it happened now and then, it’s much better. So I’m expecting less time out,” said Larsson, who didn’t require an MRI this time. “I mean, Doc kind of ruled that out pretty quick when we were already at the game. So, and I kind of felt that, too, just the way, the pain level and stuff.”
The 24-year-old was able to get some side work in during Wednesday’s practice but has been ruled out of Thursday’s contest at Detroit, Winderman adds.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., a contender for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, has improved as a play-maker in his third NBA season, Winderman states in another story. The UCLA product dished out a career-high 11 assists on Monday and is averaging 4.8 assists per game, nearly double his totals over his first two seasons (2.6 and 2.5, respectively). “He has an ability to get downhill, get into the paint, use his physicality,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But, you know, the next layer of it is understanding that teams adjust and they bring a second defender, and he’s really been working at understanding where the open guys are and not predetermining anything. He’s been watching film on it, and he’s really improved quite a bit since last year.” Jaquez will be eligible for a rookie scale extension in the offseason.
- After struggling in his first 19 games of the season, Nikola Jovic has looked like a different player over the past three games since he returned from an elbow injury, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Jovic has been far more aggressive of late, averaging 17.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 5.3 APG while shooting 40.9% from long distance over that three-game span (24.0 MPG). The Serbian forward credited his family and a shift in his mentality for his improved play. “For me, it was to stop looking at basketball as a hobby and something that I love and look at it more as a job, as a profession because that’s who I am now,” Jovic said. “So, I come in every day with a different approach now, and I guess it has to stay that way.“
- While it’s a relatively small sample size, Kel’el Ware has been scorching hot from three-point range lately, pushing his season-long average up to 47.3%, per Chiang. The 21-year-old big man has converted 43 of his 91 outside looks thus far in his second season. “We just want to be open to the possibilities with Kel’el,” Spoelstra said. “He has great potential. He’s getting better. It’s not a linear improvement. Sometimes there are big jumps. Sometimes it’s a step back. And that’s what typically happens with young players. But I just really appreciate his approach every day. He comes in everyday open to the coaching and us driving him to get to a higher level.”
Heat Notes: Ware, Larsson, Jovic, Adebayo, Jaquez
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra seems to deliver far more criticism than praise in his public comments about Kel’el Ware, but the second-year center is used to that, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (subscription required). Ware got the same feedback in college, first from Dana Altman at Oregon and then from Mike Woodson at Indiana, so he has learned how to handle it.
“I’ve been getting coached like that,” Ware said. “So it’s not much of a big thing to me, I would say. I just take it as they want to see me be better and be a better version of myself.”
Spoelstra challenged Ware over the summer to “improve his professionalism” and has stated that he needs to find ways to impact games rather than just collecting stats. Ware’s numbers have improved this season, but Spoelstra still wants more, especially on defense.
”He’s handling it appropriately when he’s being held accountable to winning things,” Spoelstra said. “It doesn’t have to be like a negative thing. We all want the same thing. We want a better result. We want growth faster. I want him to be like he’s 28, and that’s not realistic. And a little bit of impatience is good, as long as everybody handles it appropriately. But his play, obviously, is improving, and I want to feel that.”
There’s more from Miami:
- The Heat are getting closer to having a healthy roster, as Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic are both listed as probable for Friday’s game at Atlanta, Chiang adds. Larsson has missed the past five games with a sprained left ankle, and Jovic has sat out the last four with a right elbow contusion/laceration.
- Bam Adebayo has been downgraded to doubtful for the contest due to lower back soreness, per Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel (Twitter link). That could help explain Adebayo’s recent slump, as he’s averaging just 11.8 points over his last four games while shooting 37.5% from the field.
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. is scoring consistently again after his production stagnated for a while in late November and early December, Winderman notes in a full story (subscription required). Jaquez delivered 23 and 21 points off the bench in his last two outings. “I think it’s just playing confident, understanding now it’s my third year, there’s going to be ups and downs and just got to continue to play confident, play with the same tenacity of whether you’re playing well, playing not so well,” he said. “So that’s just really my mentality.”
Heat Notes: Slump, Adebayo, Herro, Larsson, Jovic, Ware
While head coach Erik Spoelstra thought the Heat showed some positive signs in consecutive road losses in Boston and New York, he was left searching for answers following the team’s third straight defeat on Tuesday, a lopsided home loss to Toronto, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“This is not what I would have predicted,” Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s 21-point loss. “I thought we were ready. I thought we had a good session this morning. I thought coming off of our last two games, on the road, even though there were losses, there were way more good things than negative things. In the New York game, we competed with a great spirit. That kind of game, you win a lot of games. But I don’t even know right now.”
As Chiang details, Miami entered December with a 13-7 record and the NBA’s 13th-ranked offense and third-ranked defense. But the team has gone just 2-8 so far this month, the worst mark in the league, with an offensive rating that ranks 27th and a defensive rating that ranks 18th over that stretch to fall back to .500 (15-15).
Third-year wing Jaime Jaquez Jr. said each player on the team needs to take accountability for his performance, starting with himself.
“I think it all starts individually,” Jaquez said. “We all got to look ourselves in the mirror. I know I can do a lot more. There’s a lot more that I know I can bring to this team. And just got to go dig deep and find it, bring it out. That goes for every one of us. It’s a tough stretch right now, and we’re really going to discover who we are in this time. And I’m confident in this team, I’m confident in this locker room. It’s something that we’re just going to have to battle through.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- Bam Adebayo has been in an offensive rut that coincides with the Heat’s slide down the standings, Chiang writes in another story. While the team’s new free-flowing offense earned praise early in the season, it has limited some of the go-to actions the Heat used to run for the three-time All-Star big man. Adebayo is taking fewer shots at the rim and more from long distance, but he has only converted 31.4% of his three-point looks, one of the worst marks in the league among players with four-plus attempts per game, Chiang notes. “It sucks,” Adebayo said of his ongoing shooting slump. “But it’s part of the NBA, it’s a long season. So fighting through whatever I’ve got to fight through, figure out how I can impact winning and do that instead of focusing on shots not falling. Just play basketball and shots will eventually start falling.”
- Adebayo is dealing with lower back soreness and is questionable for Friday’s matchup at Atlanta, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel relays. Guard Tyler Herro will miss his sixth straight game due to a right big toe contusion, but Pelle Larsson (left ankle sprain) and Nikola Jovic (right elbow contusion/laceration) are probable to suit up against the Hawks, Winderman adds. Larsson has been out for the past five games, while Jovic has been sidelined for the past four.
- Knicks head coach Mike Brown was effusive in his praise of Kel’el Ware after Sunday’s loss in New York, according to Chiang. The second-year Heat center had one of the best games of his career, finishing with 28 points (on 11-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-7 from long distance) and 19 rebounds in 35 minutes. “I’ll tell you, Kel’el Ware, he was a beast tonight on the glass,” Brown said at the start of his post-game press conference on Sunday. “This is one of the very few times we got our behinds kicked on the glass, and a lot of it is attributed to him and the way he rebounded on both ends of the floor, and then he shot the mess out of the basketball. We told our guys he’s been shooting it really well. We just didn’t get to his body. It’s a little tough because he’s seven feet. So, with a guy like that, you almost got to close all the way to his chest just to try to hopefully make him put it on the floor.”
Heat Notes: Jakucionis, Guard Depth, Adebayo, Ware, Rozier
Friday’s loss at Boston was the sixth in the last seven games for the Heat, but they got an encouraging performance from rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (subscription required). Pressed into duty because of the team’s lengthy injured list, the 20th pick in this year’s draft got his first career start and responded with 17 points in nearly 36 minutes.
“He gives us the energy, the pace. He’s fearless in terms of his play-making, aggressiveness, getting into the paint,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He has really improved his three-point shooting. So that was definitely a bright spot. With Davion (Mitchell) being out, Kas got an opportunity and he really played well.”
Jakucionis has dealt with a bumpy start to his NBA career, caused in part by a sprained left wrist that sidelined him for part of training camp and the preseason, along with a strained right groin that forced him to miss the first seven regular season games. He has been playing mainly in the G League, where he’s averaging 16.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game with Sioux Falls.
“You never know when the chance is coming, when D-Mitch was out,” Jakucionis said. “I just have to be ready every time they need me, and I’m trying to stay ready every time they need me.”
There’s more on the Heat:
- Jakucionis’ potential emergence adds to an extremely crowded backcourt in Miami, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel states in a mailbag column (subscription required). Injuries have been a factor so far, but Jakucionis could eventually be competing for playing time with Mitchell, Norman Powell, Tyler Herro and Dru Smith. Winderman notes that Pelle Larsson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are also used in guard roles, so there could be difficult decisions about playing time if everyone gets healthy.
- Spoelstra experimented with small-ball lineups earlier in the season, but injuries have forced him to rely more on the double-big combination of Bam Adebayo and second-year center Kel’el Ware, Winderman observes in a separate story. The Heat tend to use Ware in drop coverage to protect the rim, while switching on defense more often when he’s not in the game. “I mean, it keeps teams off balance,” Adebayo said. “We’ve got to look at it in a positive way. We keep teams off balance.”
- In another piece, Winderman calls for commissioner Adam Silver to make a decision on what the Heat can do with Terry Rozier‘s contract before the January 7 salary guarantee date and the February 5 trade deadline get any closer.
Southeast Notes: Heat, Herro, Whitmore, Diabate
The Heat‘s 127-111 loss to the Kings on Saturday extended their losing streak to three games, with a growing injury report catching up to them in Sacramento, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell, and Pelle Larsson all missed the game for Miami.
“We didn’t have a lot of juice on either end of the floor,” said head coach Erik Spoelstra.
As Chiang observes, the injuries forced the Heat to play their 10th different starting lineup through 24 games. Also of note was that Spoelstra went away from Kel’el Ware in the second half, choosing instead to start the third quarter with Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“Just looking for some juice, looking for something to kick-start just some energy,” Spoelstra explained. “It didn’t really work out that way. But I don’t know necessarily what would have. It wasn’t an indictment on Kel’el.”
We have more from around the Southeast Division:
- The good news for the Heat this weekend was that an MRI on Herro’s injured toe showed a simple contusion, which is not expected to be a long-lasting issue. “I just was going to wait until we found out what the deal was,” Spoelstra said, per Chiang, when asked if he had been worried about the test. “I try not to stress out about the things that you don’t know about or can’t control.”
- Cam Whitmore didn’t play in the Wizards‘ game on Saturday, which coach Brian Keefe indicated was due to disciplinary issues. Varun Shankar of Post Sports broke down Whitmore’s play late in the previous game against the Celtics (Twitter video link), citing Whitmore’s lack of defensive effort and intensity on multiple plays. Shankar notes (via Twitter) that while the Wizards are tanking this season, they have put an emphasis on playing with the proper process.
- The Hornets announced, via Twitter, that Moussa Diabate was downgraded to out with right knee soreness for the team’s game against the Nuggets on Sunday. He joined a long list of Charlotte players on the injury report, including LaMelo Ball, Pat Connaughton, Josh Green, Tre Mann, Collin Sexton, and Grant Williams. Given the physical and mental toll of playing seven games in 12 days while shorthanded, maybe no team in the league is as ready for the upcoming five-day break as the Hornets, writes Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer. “Just use the five days and just focus on the right things,” said Brandon Miller. “Just come back with the mindset of just dominating and then we’ll be fine with that.”