Heat receive unfortunate injury update ahead of Monday's game against Cavaliers

The Miami Heat had just nine available players in Monday night’s 16-point win over the tanking Washington Wizards.

They will be without multiple key rotation players once again, but they received an unfortunate update regarding first-time All-Star Tyler Herro ahead of Wednesday’s matchup against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tyler Herro will be inactive with head cold, his third missed game of season:

Tyler Herro was not at shootaround ahead of Wednesday’s game due to an illness and ultimately was ruled inactive. It will mark his third missed game of the season–including the second game against a top-2 team in the Eastern Conference.

The shorthanded Heat were also going to be without Jaime Jaqueez Jr. (ankle), Nikola Jovic (fractured hand), Kel’el Ware (knee), Andrew Wiggins (ankle) and Dru Smith (achilles), who is out for the year.

Heat will have nine regulars available plus Keshad Johnson, Josh Christopher and Isaiah Stevens, who have been with the Sioux Falls Skyforce (G-League) most of the season. Here are the available bodies:

Davion Mitchell
Terry Rozier
Alec Burks
Kevin Love
Bam Adebayo
Pelle Larsson
Kyle Anderson
Duncan Robinson
Haywood Highsmith
Keshad Johnson
Josh Christopher
Isaiah Stevens

Mitchell missed Monday’s game with a quad injury, but told reporters at shootaround that he would be playing.

https://twitter.com/flasportsbuzz/status/1897320191207608466

The Cavaliers have won 11 straight and 15 of their last 16 games. They have all but locked in the No. 1 seed in the East with all of their regulars available ahead of Wednesday’s nationally televised showdown.

Miami is currently fighting with the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks for positioning in the play-in race, which could come down to the last few days. At 29-31, the Heat are five games behind the Detroit Pistons while being 1.5 games ahead of the Orlando Magic.