Erik Spoelstra vouches for Duo Tiller Herro-Norman Powell

After that The Miami Heat lost to the Orlando Magic in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup on Tuesday, 117-108, it was their fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six games. With elimination of the Heat’s NBA Cupfans are wondering what is the reason for the fall and whether Tyler Herro is at the forefront of it.

While it would be easy to show him the way with a team that has slowed in the six games he’s played in and is 3-3 as a group, it goes beyond Herr’s presence. The stats show that’s not a Hero problem for the team, as when he’s on the floor, Miami has outscored teams by 3.6 points per 100 possessions in 191 minutes of play.

Even looking at the 20-point loss to Orlando, the team outscored the Magic by 8.1 points per 100 possessions, but the Heat were outscored by 50 points per 100 possessions in the 14 minutes he was on the sidelines.

The one aspect fans were excited to see was the star-studded backfield duo Norman Powellalthough the head coach Erik Spoelstra believes it will be “good.”

“We’ll have that opportunity in games to work on that,” Spoelstra said, according to The Miami Herald. “They’ve been working on it behind the scenes. It’s only (72) minutes. So it’s still going to get better. If you have the skill level that they have, that both of them can shoot the basketball, both of them can put the ball on the floor, and they both want to make it work, based on my experience, those things work. And we need it. How we need it, we need it, we have to move forward, honestly.”

Tyler Hero, Norman Powell on Heat’s ‘adjustment period’

It was that Herro’s heat so far has been riddled with injuriesin addition to missing the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, he suffered a toe injury that sidelined him for two games. Herro would admit that it’s still a “work in progress” for him to get back to 100 percent health and also strengthen the chemistry with Miami in their new rushing attack.

“That was my sixth game tonight,” Herro said after the loss to the Magic. “So just coming in here, it’s going to be a work in progress. … I just have to keep fighting. We’re all trying, and we want to win obviously, and that’s what’s important. We’re all focused, and we just have to keep working at it, keep getting better. I think it’s the next few days, let’s rest a little bit and then get back to it.”

Powell would play down the mediocre results so far with Hero and others returning to the lineup, even saying that in the adjustment period the team is in, “it will take maybe four or five more games” to get the chemistry back.

Anyway, after an 11-6 start, the Heat are now 14-11 with Friday’s practice break ahead of Monday’s game against the Toronto Raptors.