MILWAUKEE — Tyler Herro couldn’t believe it in the moment Sunday, still couldn’t believe it at Tuesday’s practice, and said he probably won’t come to complete grips of being sidelined with a broken right hand until his Miami Heat tip off Game 2 of their Eastern Conference opening-round NBA playoff series Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Obviously being at home and being in the playoffs, you work so hard all year to be in this moment, where I feel like I had some things to prove this postseason,” Herro, a native of the Milwaukee area, said as teammates completed Tuesday’s practice at Fiserv Forum. “So it was a tough moment. I still can’t believe it.
“It’ll probably sink in [Wednesday] night, when I can’t suit up. It’s my first time breaking a bone, and unfortunate timing.”
Injured diving for a loose ball near the end of the first half of the Heat’s 130-117 Sunday victory in Game 1, Herro described the injury in gruesome detail, including attempting an errant 3-pointer immediately after the injury.
“I didn’t know my hand was broken at the time,” he said, with the hand in a protective wrap Tuesday. “I knew I was in pain, That was probably the most open shot I’ve gotten all year. So I was like, ‘I’m shooting it either way.’ And I shot it, and that’s when I knew, like, ‘OK, something’s wrong,’ because I couldn’t even follow through with my hand.
“And got to the back, and seen right away, my bones were like in my palm. And I like pushed them up as I was going to the back. And I said it was broken for sure.”
The diagnosis?
“The second and third metacarpal, I think they’re called, just snapped in half,” he said. “My hand’s not in good shape right now.”
A timetable is in place.
“Heading back to Miami after the game,” he said of the Heat’s Thursday flight back to South Florida, after Wednesday’s 9 p.m. game. “I’ll get surgery on Friday morning and it’s going to be four to six weeks, hopefully less, after that, and see what happens.”
It will take considerable Heat success for Herro to make it back this season.
“They said it would be more toward the [NBA] Finals, not the conference finals, just because of the rehab I’d have to do after surgery,” he said, with the NBA Finals scheduled to begin June 1. “So, yeah, I mean, that’s the hope, get to the Finals, and I can come back for that. But obviously just taking it one day at a time, get my surgery on Friday and go from there.”
To get to the NBA Finals, the Heat would have to push past the top-seeded Bucks, the winner of the New York Knicks-Cleveland Cavaliers series, and then win the East finals.
Herro remained incredulous about the severity of what he thought was an innocuous moment.
“I could dive on 10 balls and I probably won’t break my hand at all,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. Like I watched the video, and I still don’t know where I hit my hand. I still don’t know.
“Like I said, I probably shouldn’t have dove on it. But I was trying to create some energy. We were on the road in my hometown and trying to play hard. Game 1 was obviously really important for us and I’m happy we got that, but I still can’t believe it.”
Making it all the more difficult was having family and friends in the building.
“They obviously were really devastated by the news,” he said. “Nobody thought it was a broken hand at first. And then once they got the news, they were devastated. Like I said, this was a big moment for me, this postseason. And not to be able to be out there, that really sucks.”
For Herro, 23, the plan was for the postseason to be validation of his first season as an NBA starter, having won last season’s’ NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award.
“That’s why I was so disappointed,” he said. “I feel like no matter what I did in the regular season, it wasn’t going to validate until I did something in the playoffs again. I knew that. And that’s why it’s just so devastating.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra said he knew how much this series and this postseason meant to the four-year veteran.
“He has a toughness about him,” Spoelstra said. “That always is really challenging for competitors when you can’t be out there with your team. I feel for him, I do. Because I saw that look in his eye in preparing for the playoffs. He really wanted to make an impact and he was off to a great start on both ends of the court.
“It’s a shame that, one, you get injured and, two, you get injured on a hustle play trying to do the right thing. But all in all, the outlook was better than what I expected. I know that doesn’t make Tyler feel a whole lot better right now, in the moment. But some of those hand injuries could be a lot worse. So that part is promising and he has the mental fortitude and toughness that he’ll be able to get through this and find a silver lining out of it.”
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