Heat’s Herro experiencing soreness, swelling in hand. And Nuggets exasperated by Game 2

Heat guard Tyler Herro’s return from a fractured right hand might not happen as quickly as hoped.

Herro told ESPN Radio sideline reporter Ros Gold-Onwude on Sunday that he is still experiencing discomfort after shooting.

“I spoke with Tyler Herro ahead of his Game 2 pregame routine and he told me he experiences both soreness and swelling in the right hand after shooting and he can feel the soreness when he’s making a “follow through” shooting motion,” Gold-Onwude tweeted. “He also shared his consideration of not wanting to come back and mess up the rhythm of the team. While there was hope he’d return for Game 2 as he’s participating in all aspects of team practice, he’s making sure the time is right for his return to the court.”

ESPN and NBA TV have both reported that Herro is expected to play in Game 3 on Wednesday, but that now appears to be in question.

A source who has spoken with Herro was skeptical of that network-reported timeline. That source said the expectation that Herro definitely will return during the Finals was a bit overstated and that he has a few hurdles to clear, including receiving medical clearance.

Herro has been sidelined for more than seven weeks after injuring his hand late in the first half of the Heat’s playoff opener against Milwaukee.

NUGGETS REACTION

In Denver’s postgame media briefings on Sunday, there was exasperation expressed about not matching Miami’s effort.

“It’s the [expletive] Finals, man,” forward Jeff Green said. “Our energy has to be better. … I think it’s all about discipline. We just have to be better disciplined on the ball, off the ball, knowing our coverages, what we’re supposed to do. … I don’t think we need a rah-rah speech in order to get us up. I think we know what we have to do going into Game 3.”

Coach Mike Malone admonished his players afterward.

“We are talking about effort; that’s a huge concern of mine,” Malone said. “We had guys out there that were just whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off. This is not the preseason, this is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals. That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing.

“I asked the team: ‘you guys tell me why they lost,’ and they knew the answer. Miami came in here and outworked us, and we were by far our least disciplined game of these playoffs. So many breakdowns. They exploited every one of our breakdowns and scored.”

Guard Jamal Murray said: “It’s defense and discipline. We can’t have spurts of good play. We’ve got to play all the way through, through ups and downs, stay together and play with intensity and energy, and I don’t think we had that. We just piled them on, mistake after mistake, and weren’t able to come back from that. It’s defeating when you’re giving up mistake after mistake, and it’s not them beating you, you’re giving them open dunks or open shots.”

Center Nikola Jokic said his team had “had a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding. They are punishing you as soon as you make mistakes.”

Nuggets guard Christian Braun put it this way: “That’s how they win games; they punch people in the mouth early and out-tough you. They did that and we got to bounce back.”

THIS AND THAT

The winner of Game 3 in a 1-1 series has won 80 percent of NBA Finals.

▪ This was the Nuggets’ ninth consecutive loss in games in which Jokic had four or fewer assists; the Nuggets are 3-7 when he has six or fewer assists. Denver dropped to 0-3 this postseason when Jokic scores 40 or more points.

▪ Malone, on his decision not to call a timeout before Murray’s missed three-pointer in the closing seconds: “You take a timeout, you let them get set, you let them review whatever play they think that we’re going to run and there’s a great chance that we don’t get a quality shot like Jamal got. We’ve seen Jamal make shots like that before.”

▪ The Heat’s 13 playoff victories this season are the most by a No. 8 seed in a single postseason. New York won 12 games as a No. 8 seed in the 1999 postseason.

▪ The Heat is now 6-3 on the road in the playoffs against three of the four teams that had the NBA’s best regular season records (Milwaukee, Boston and Denver). Philadelphia also had a top-four record during the regular season, but the Heat did not play the 76ers in the playoffs.

▪ Per statitudes.com, the Heat became the fourth team in NBA history to shoot at least 45 percent on threes and 90 percent on free throws in an NBA Finals game.

▪ Per ESPN, the Heat’s 68.8 percent shooting in the fourth quarter was the third-highest fourth quarter field goal percentage in an NBA Finals game in the past 25 years.

▪ Game 2 on ABC was viewed in 14.96 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with television sets - equal to the local rating for the Dolphins-Bills playoff game on CBS in January. One local ratings point equals 17,200 homes.