Tyler Herro leads Heat to win over Mavericks in season debut - ESPN

MIAMI — It took a little while, but Tyler Herro eventually got going in his season debut.

As a result, so did the Miami Heat.

Behind 24 points from Herro — including a floater that put Miami ahead for good inside the final minute — Monday night at Kaseya Center against the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat eventually emerged with a 106-102 victory, continuing the team's hot start and allowing everyone to celebrate the team's leading scorer returning from ankle surgery in September.

«It was a long nine, 10 weeks or so [that I was out], but it went by fast,» Herro said. "[The team has] been having a lot of fun, and just to be able to go out there and compete with them tonight was great."

Herro had spent the past few weeks ramping himself back up into full basketball shape with a target of sometime at the end of this month — two full months after the surgery — in mind as a reasonable expectation for his return to game action. He said he and the team had this date circled for the past three weeks.

His return coming Monday — with leading scorer Norman Powell (groin) sitting out and on the second night of a back-to-back after Sunday's win in Philadelphia — was ideal for a Heat team looking to keep its early season momentum moving forward.

«It's amazing that he can come back and have that kind of rhythm, and that's only going to get better,» Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. «When you face better defenses, you can see why we need that skill. You need as much skill and firepower as possible in this league.

»And it was just exciting to have him back."

The Heat needed every one of Herro's points, as Dallas — which has now played in a league-leading 15th clutch game this season — came back from trailing by as many as 13 points to tie the