Miami guard Tyler Herro's broken right hand was season-ending after all.
Herro was active for the first time in nearly two months for Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, but did not play in Miami's 94-89 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Denver won the series 4-1 for the first championship in franchise history.
Herro had not played since Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first round against Milwaukee. He recovered from surgery to repair the fractures and was doing shooting and some scrimmage work for several days in an effort to get back on the court.
“He's done everything he needed to do,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said in Denver during his pregame media session before Game 5. “We appreciate all the work that he's put in. It's been a long, whatever, six, seven weeks of this and he's putting himself out there, available. It's all hands on deck.”
Spoelstra stayed with his usual rotation for what became the last game of the season.
Herro was listed as out for Game 5 when the initial Heat injury report for the game was released Sunday. The Heat upgraded him to questionable on Monday morning.
“You have to go through stages,” Spoelstra said last week when discussing Herro's return. “First part of it was just shooting, then movement, then contact versus coaches and then the next level of contact in practice.”
Herro also missed some time in last season's playoffs with a groin injury. It sidelined him for three games of the East finals against Boston, before he returned for Game 7 and struggled in what became the final game of the season for the Heat.
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