The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night in a thrilling game four victory to tie the series up at two. The series will now head back to Miami.
The Heat may be on the brink of some good news regarding an injured player as we move toward the end of this series. No, it's not Chris Bosh, who is still likely to miss the remainder of the postseason, but Heat fans might settle for good news regarding Tyler Johnson. Johnson has been doing more and more in practice recently, and it seems like a return during this series might be a reasonable possibility.
Johnson has not played since having surgery on his rotator cuff in February, but since having that procedure he has remained confident he would be able to play this season. The progress for Johnson hasn't been quite as quick as he had hoped, as he initially thought he'd be back for the end of the regular season, but as they say, better late than never.
On Monday, the day of game four, head coach Erik Spoelstra said Johnson feels the best he has felt and that the team has had discussions about if and when he could return. The 23-year-old guard has been doing just about everything on the court including taking some contact, but he has yet to participate in a full-contact practice. Johnson, though, believes that the next time the Heat have a full-contact practice he will be able to take part.
The combo guard was inactive for game four and is still unlikely to play in game five on Wednesday, but the hope is that he may be available for game six on Friday. Johnson has been confident all along and remains confident he can get back Friday. Spoelstra isn't quite as confident, but he said it has been discussed.
As mentioned before, Johnson hasn't played since February so he would likely have a significant amount of rust if he came back, but he was a key contributor before getting hurt. In 36 games he averaged 8.7 points and shot 38 percent from beyond the three-point line. After Johnson went down Josh Richardson took over his role and did a great job, but he has struggled so far in this series against the Hornets, so having Johnson back would be a welcome sight. Johnson likely wouldn't take Richardson's role away completely, considering the Heat will want to ease him into action, but they need as many shooters as possible, and right now Richardson is making just 29 percent of his threes in the postseason.
