Guard Tyler Herro was sidelined Tuesday night as the Miami Heat fell to the Portland Trail Blazers 116-107 at the Kaseya Center.
Herro, who turned 25 on Monday, has been dealing with tightness in his right groin and missed his first game of the season. He’s averaging a team-best 24 points and missed it Tuesday, when the 15-win Trail Blazers notched just their sixth road win of the season.
“That was really hard to evaluate,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the loss, given Herro’s absence. “Without Tyler, our overall intentionality wasn’t at its highest level.”
The Heat, before the game, announced that Herro woke up with tension on Tuesday. He was originally listed as questionable for the game and was downgraded to out about an hour before kickoff.
In his fifth NBA season, Herro has taken on a larger offensive role, especially with uncertainty surrounding star forward Jimmy Butler’s future with the club. Butler recently returned from a seven-game suspension for what the Heat deemed “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Rookie Kel’el Ware had 20 points and 16 rebounds and Duncan Robinson finished with 22 points for the Heat. Butler added 13 in the loss.
“I think we did well without Tyler,” Miami center Bam Adebayo said. “Obviously, we lost the game. But as far as executing our sets, moving, obviously Tyler is a big part of what we do, but I feel like we got the ball where we were supposed to, and we just missed shots.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.