The Miami Heat entered Wednesday’s do-or-die play-in against the Chicago Bulls with their backs against the wall, hoping to avoid their season ending prematurely in hostile territory to a Bulls team that had their number this season.
They didn’t let that happen, surviving to see another day with a 109-90 blowout win–ending the Bulls’ season for the third-straight year. While the victory was a collective effort on both ends from the Heat, one player–first-time Heat All-Star Tyler Herro–stood out above the rest.
Herro finished with a game-high 38 points on 13-of-19 shooting–draining his first eight attempts. From start to finish, Herro was aggressive while simultaneously controlling the pace and looking as comfortable as he’s looked on a basketball court this season.
Miami needed him to play well, and he exceeded every conceivable expectation. Let’s dive into the film to see how the 25-year-old sliced and diced the Bulls’ defense Wednesday, shall we?!
Miami’s plan offensively from the opening tip was very clear: Generate paint touches. Get to the rim. Bend the Bulls’ defense and put them in rotation as much as possible–and then play out of that.
The head of that snake was Herro, who’s been more forceful getting two feet in the paint this season off the bounce.
In the clip above, Herro wants to put Vucevic, a below-average defender, in the action on the Heat’s first possession–pulling the biggest Bulls defender away from the rim.
Yet, he notices that his defender, Josh Giddey, tries to play him into the screen. Herro beats him to the punch and rejects it–playing through the slower Giddey and creating an advantage with nobody protecting the rim. Rookie Matas Buzelis does a poor job splitting the difference between Herro and 7-foot Kel’el Ware; Vucevic has two feet stuck in quicksand and it’s an easy layup for Herro.
A couple possessions later, Herro looks to initiate an angled double-drag with Ware and Bam Adebayo as the two screeners.
Though the savvy guard notices three things: 1.) Huerter tries to ICE the action with no drop big playing the screen(s) properly 2.) Coby White, defending Highsmith one pass away, is the only defender within five feet of the rim with Giddey on Wiggins on the weak side and 3.) his secondary burst gives him a clear advantage over Huerter.
He blows by Huerter with ease and completely muscles through Buzelis–who does a good job recovering, to his credit, even though he overplays the angle–for the euro-step finish.
Herro’s not settling; he’s not overthinking; he’s attacking and staying aggressive, getting spoon-fed opportune layups at the rim because of the advantages he’s creating with the ball in his hands.
On this possession, an advantage is presented to him after Huerter (Herro’s man) doubles Wiggins in the mid-post (for some reason). Doubling away from Herro is never a good idea. And Miami’s 6-foot-5 guard took full advantage.
He’s left alone above-the-break with the slow-footed Vucevic closing out on him. Herro easily blows by him with Kel’el Ware Gortat screening Giddey away from providing weakside rim protection. Easy wide-open finish.
Herro generating as many paint touches as he did opened up the rest of his–and the Heat–offense. Finally, Herro was able to leverage his quickness and assertiveness into his jump shot.
In the first clip, Huerter overplays Herro off-the-catch and the 25-year-old does an excellent job creating space with a smooth stepback for an open 3-pointer. He does much of the same in the second clip–albeit off a dribble hand-off–with White looking to stunt one pass away and Vucevic doing his best to recover in drop.
Still, Chicago had zero answer for the star guard getting to whatever spot he wanted.
While the Heat defense bogged down in the third quarter, Herro was still able to get to the paint and utilize his floater.
In the first clip, Herro easily blows by a rotating Giddey off-the-catch. he sees Vucevic helping from the corner and hoists a tear-drop just over the outstretched Buzelis, who was defending Ware on the weakside block.
In the second clip, Herro comes off a staggered pin-down, flowing to his off-hand. He does a great job keeping Huerter in jail with Vucevic (drop big) as the only source of rim protection. Giddey does a pseudo-stunt, but it’s not enough to deter Herro, who smoothly rises over Chicago’s 6-foot-10 big.
In the third clip, Herro stampede cuts past both Giddey (his defender) and Buzelis (stunt attempt)–forcing Vucevic to split the difference between him and Ware. He’s late and out of position, leading to another easy floater to put Miami up 17 late.
Now, one of my favorite plays from the game. Coby White didn’t learn his lesson, didn’t he?!?
Well, Tyler Herro did. Remember when Herro took a fastbreak three at the end of last week’s matchup against the Bulls after stealing the ball from White (who was trying to draw the switch)? Well, in the clip above, Herro blitzed the double-drag and caught White lacking (again), leading to his easiest bucket all night: A one-handed throwdown.
“He knew he was going to have to bring a lot to this game. Offensively, he was there pretty much at every level all game long,” Spoelstra said. “But, quietly, I thought he had a very good defensive game. … He wants to prove he can be a two-way player. I love that about him.
(He attacked) in a lot of different ways (offensively). It’s not just straight high pick-and-rolls, where he’s just going to get worn out or they’re going to trap him. He’s making a lot of those plays in between that are unscripted. But we’ve also been able to develop that game, which requires everybody seizing those moments.” And seeing it and developing an IQ to get to it.”
Miami’s first-time All-Star answered the bell in plenty of ways offensively when his team needed him to do the most. The blueprint is there, and if he can continue to show the same sort of efficient aggression and creation ability, Miami instantly becomes a more potent offense with multiple layers to it.
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Ei saw on the news re: Florida school shooting…hope everyone is ok and people close to you guys over there 😢
It does suck. I hope the same.
If Herro blows up again against the Hawks he is going to get a ton of hype going into that Cavs series. That would be awesome for him on a personal level and hope he gets to see himself get talked about like that.
Sorry, Trae. The refs won’t be able to help you. Pack your bags for Tulum.
The way this team has changed since the trade and lineup change has made it more dynamic and diversified. It’s more of a pick your poison. Double Herro and Wiggins or Bam or Burks can hurt you while Ware waits for lobs. Throw in stifling defensive lineups like Ware, Bam, Wiggins, Highsmith, and Mitchell and suffocate the opposing offense.
I liked and preferred getting the 2 draft picks, but I don’t see how Atlanta wins this game.
we can beat cleve,with the defense we have now its a game changer.ty has upped his game to an aging donovan level.i dont see any clear cut advantage cleve has over us.if they do please name one.
Huh? Nowhere in my comment do I even mention Cleveland.
With Wiggins, Mitchell and Anderson the Heat is a better defensive team and better offensively. I’m looking forward to seeing what this group can do now that they’ve figured out how to play together and found their mojo.
I think we take them 6 or 7
You must learn to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. Herro has paid his dues and is now running like the wind.
herro was running from day one with stronger body he just has become rock solid consistent
Over the past few years, Herro has worked hard to develop his body and his skills. The game has finally slowed down for him and he has found his comfort zone. He has grown into the role of Miami’s co-Alpha male leader on the offensive end with Bam in the role as the team’s co-leader on the defensive end.
Herro is no longer living in the shadow of Butler. He’s gotten his mojo back and has helped his teammates find theirs. With him and Bam solidly in control, the team is now prepared to move on and is committed to continue improving. It is clear their confidence and the comfort level of the team is improving by the day.
If Miami steamrolls Atlanta the way they did Chicago, Cleveland better be ready for a dogfight. Miami has won more than one playoff series when they were huge underdogs. If they have confidence and bring intensity to every game, who’s to say they can’t do it again?
But I digress. First things first. We need to beat Atlanta tomorrow and only then we can begin seriously discussing what comes next. Worse case scenario, if we lose, we can begin discussing how to use our lottery pick and the pick we received from Golden State and other possible offseason moves.
It sure is nice playing pressure-free basketball, knowing we are playing with other people’s money, that all the pressure is on our opponents with high expectations and that we have absolutely nothing to lose. Life is good!
GO HEAT!!!
we lose to atl bad ending.no mo heat games lose to cleve acceptable and u officially begin your re tooling job.
What if you lose 4-0 to Cleveland? Acceptable? Or wasted opportunity?
If blowouts bad. If competitive games good.
competitive games ill take it (4 extra heat games).i see it as just about even.forget the first 70 games with terry jjj pelle loveless .spos gonna play unc i disagree with that.i need ballers not one wayers