Herro, Love still out for Heat vs. Wizards. Also, Adebayo’s struggles, Mills’ debut and more

While the Miami Heat returns home after a winless two-game trip to host the Washington Wizards on Sunday, the returns of Tyler Herro and Kevin Love will have to wait.

Herro (right foot medial tendinitis) and Love (right heel bruise) have been ruled out for Sunday’s matchup against the Wizards at Kaseya Center (6 p.m., Bally Sports Sun).

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It will mark the eighth straight game that Herro has missed and the sixth straight game that Love has missed with their respective injuries. Along with Herro’s foot issue, he also has dealt with a hyperextended left knee during this stretch of absences that he has since recovered from.

The Heat will also be without Josh Richardson (season-ending right shoulder surgery), Jamal Cain (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) on Sunday against the Wizards. The rest of the Heat’s roster is expected to be available for the game.

Without Herro, who has started in each of his 36 appearances this season, the Heat has used a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic and Bam Adebayo for the past six games.

Without Love, who has established himself as a very effective backup center, the Heat has rotated between Orlando Robinson and Thomas Bryant to play as the center when Adebayo has been on the bench. But in Friday’s loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City, neither Orlando Robinson nor Bryant was used.

The Heat instead played Jovic, who is usually used as a forward, as the center against the Thunder when Adebayo was on the bench.

ADEBAYO’S SHOOTING STRUGGLES

During the Heat’s 0-2 trip that included losses to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday and Thunder on Friday, Adebayo was at the center of both opponents’ defensive game plan.

The Mavericks and Thunder sent extra defenders at Adebayo and made things tough for him in the paint, and it affected him.

Adebayo scored a season-low five points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field in Friday’s loss to the Thunder. It marked just the second game in Adebayo’s NBA career that he has not made more than one shot when putting up nine or more field-goal attempts, as the other came in a 1-of-10 shooting performance against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 12, 2018 during his rookie season.

Adebayo also struggled to make shots in Thursday’s loss to the Mavericks, scoring 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field.

During this two-game stretch, Adebayo shot just 1 of 11 (9.1 percent) on non-rim paint shots. He is shooting 49.5 percent on those shots for the season.

“Sometimes these things happen,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Friday’s loss in Oklahoma City when asked about Adebayo’s mini shooting slump. “But he’s a competitor. He knows how to impact the game. They were committed to take the ball out of his hands, particularly out of the post. In the pick-and-rolls, they were switching so we couldn’t necessarily get him the ball in his sweet spots. So he wasn’t able to get some easy relief points. But he did a lot of good things.”

To Adebayo’s credit, he still totaled 19 rebounds, nine assists, four steals and two blocks during the two-game trip.

MILLS MAKES IMMEDIATE IMPACT

On Wednesday, veteran guard Patty Mills signed a minimum contract to join the Heat for the rest of the season.

On Friday, Mills made his Heat debut and made an immediate impact with his ability to hit outside shots. He recorded 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes in 16 minutes off the bench in Friday’s loss to the Thunder.

That 13-point performance matched his highest-scoring game of the season, as he also scored 13 points for the Atlanta Hawks in a Jan. 24 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

“That was great to see him finally do it in a Heat uniform instead of against us,” Spoelstra said, referring to the Heat’s NBA Finals battles against Mills and the San Antonio Spurs in 2013 and 2014. “We’ve seen that for too many years. You can see why he’s been able to do what he does. He’s ignitable, he’s smart, he’s been in a lot of very good systems so he knows how to fit even though he hasn’t had a practice.”

The 35-year-old Mills was lifted into a playing role with three Heat rotation players out, as Herro, Love and Richardson were unavailable for Friday’s game.

“Anytime you get to have a chance to get on the floor is always good,” said Mills, who is in his 15th NBA season. “It’s a disappointing loss. ... But yeah, just great to stretch it out, get on the floor and be with this team.”

Mills’ quality three-point shooting makes him a natural fit alongside the Heat’s leading duo of Adebayo and Butler, who both do most of their work inside the three-point line.

Mills is only one of five current active players in the league who entered the NBA prior to 2010 and has shot better than 38 percent from three-point range on at least 4.4 attempts per game during his career. The others on that list are Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Danny Green, Danilo Gallinari.

“15 years in, it’s all the same kind of stuff,” Spoelstra said of Mills. “He can play his game, he helps our best players. He was able to really help that unit we had in with Jimmy and Niko. That’s something that will definitely add to our depth.”

Whether Mills will be part of the Heat’s rotation when the roster is closer to full health remains to be seen. But Butler already sees how Mills can help.

“We all know what he can do,” Butler said. “We all know what he’s going to bring to this team. I think that he’s a winner. He knows how to play the game of basketball. He has a very, very, very high IQ and he just wants to help in any way that he can.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. shined in Friday’s loss to the Thunder, scoring 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field in 31 minutes off the bench. It marked Jaquez’s third-highest scoring performance of the season.

“Like I’ve said a million times, just having a team that trusts and a coaching staff that trusts me and puts me in those positions, it’s a great feeling,” Jaquez said.

▪ The Mavericks and Thunder combined to outscore the Heat 39-10 in second-chance points during the two-game trip.

Despite those recent issues, the Heat has been one of the league’s top defensive rebounding teams this season. Miami entered Saturday with the NBA’s seventh-best defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) this season at 72.7 percent.

“That is our hurdle for this moment in time,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve rebounded great for the majority of the season. For whatever reason, this little pocket right now, it’s been troubling for us.”

▪ The Heat entered Saturday with the NBA’s 22nd-ranked offensive rating and eighth-ranked defensive rating this season.