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MIAMI – If it ends Monday, after the slog through the sewage left behind by Jimmy Butler, through the 10-game losing streak and then six-game winning streak, through the climb out of the play-in round to create this uncomfortable playoff reality, it will not be difficult to put a name to it all:
Tyler Herro.
For a week now, through a cycle of emotions, the constant Miami Heat focus during this playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers has been on Erik Spoelstra’s swaggy shooting guard.
Can he score on the ball? Can he score off the ball? Can he take the talk?Can he talk the talk?
Such elevation to emerging playoff leading man, as Herro has learned over this past week, stands as both blessing and curse.
For years, the face of the postseason Heat – until it became the sourest of faces – was that of Butler.
Leaning over a court railing in the Disney pandemic bubble, down to his last breath in those 2020 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Vowing to be “stupidly locked in” only to be swept out of the 2021 playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Having the hubris to shoot a 3-pointer that ended the Heat hopes in Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, as well as forced into a turnover at the final moment of truth against the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
And then being unable to make it to the court for last season’s first-round ouster at the hands of the Celtics.
Such is the focus of fame in a league fueled by star power.
So exit Butler; enter Herro. Not the Herro hasn’t been here all along, not that he didn’t join the Heat in the same 2019 offseason as Butler, not that he didn’t have pandemic-bubble moments of his own in those 2020 playoffs, not that he wasn’t named NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2022 or an All-Star for the first time this past February.
But playoff spotlight is different. It just is. And that has made this past week vital for Herro and vital for the Heat taking stock of Herro, even with the Heat down 0-3 in the best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference series and facing elimination in Monday’s 7:30 p.m. Game 4 at Kaseya Center.
The degree of respect from the Cavaliers has been to the degree of disrespect from Cleveland guard Darius Garland mocking Herro’s defense; you don’t mock those who otherwise go unnoticed.
The degree of respect in Saturday’s Game 3 Heat blowout loss was to the degree of building a human wall to prevent Herro from even getting near the 3-point line; you don’t try to exhaust a player on one end unless you fear him on the other, and you don’t overplay such a player defensively unless you acknowledge an acceptance of allowing anyone else on the opposition to beat you.
“Tyler cares,” Spoelstra said of anything and everything that has been thrown Herro’s way over this past week, and assuredly will be again on Monday night. “Tyler goes to work at this.”
Herro’s 13 points in Game 3 came after 33 in Game 2.
“Come on,” Spoelstra continued, “he just had a monster game. And what they just said, ‘We’re going to do whatever we have to do to make sure that he doesn’t have that.’ That’s born out of respect.
“We’ll all get to work. And that’s what Tyler always does. But this is playoff basketball. All of the really good players have to go through this. You get schemed and the schemes are on steroids in the playoffs.”
For some, the response would be to call out teammates for not doing more, to alleviate the focus. At the end, that essentially was where Butler stood, before aligning himself with Steph Curry in his trade to the Golden State Warriors.
To Herro, it is about now finding a way, just as he found a way past his uneven Game 1 at the start of this series.
“That’s a sign of great respect. Tyer’s earned that,” Spoelstra said of Herro becoming singular focus. “He’s absolutely earned that, that kind of respect . . . because they know how dangerous he can be.
“We’ve, rightly so, become reliant on Tyler creating a lot of offense for us. And they kind of took him out of his normal stuff, the faceguard and denying. And that led to some of the discouragement.”
Discouragement more so from teammates than from Herro.
Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies became the first team swept out of these playoffs, going against a top-seeded opponent of their own, with the Oklahoma City Thunder as relentless in the West as the Cavaliers have been in the East.
Monday, the Heat could be next.
But it won’t be for a lack of wont from Herro, who entered well aware of the challenge of having to preserve through two play-in wins merely to find himself amid this full-focus challenge.
“We wanted to be here,” he said. “We were the 10th seed. We had two games to win on the road. We could have let go of the rope then. We could have lost one of those games. But we wanted this, we wanted to be in the playoffs.”
From his arrival in the 2019 lottery out of Kentucky, Herro has wanted it all. In this humbling series against the Cavaliers, he has gotten it all, the attention afforded star power in the NBA postseason. Now he, more than any other Heat player, gets to determine whether Monday night will be closing night.
Continue reading...
Tyler Herro.
For a week now, through a cycle of emotions, the constant Miami Heat focus during this playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers has been on Erik Spoelstra’s swaggy shooting guard.
Can he score on the ball? Can he score off the ball? Can he take the talk?Can he talk the talk?
Such elevation to emerging playoff leading man, as Herro has learned over this past week, stands as both blessing and curse.
For years, the face of the postseason Heat – until it became the sourest of faces – was that of Butler.
Leaning over a court railing in the Disney pandemic bubble, down to his last breath in those 2020 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Vowing to be “stupidly locked in” only to be swept out of the 2021 playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Having the hubris to shoot a 3-pointer that ended the Heat hopes in Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, as well as forced into a turnover at the final moment of truth against the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
And then being unable to make it to the court for last season’s first-round ouster at the hands of the Celtics.
Such is the focus of fame in a league fueled by star power.
So exit Butler; enter Herro. Not the Herro hasn’t been here all along, not that he didn’t join the Heat in the same 2019 offseason as Butler, not that he didn’t have pandemic-bubble moments of his own in those 2020 playoffs, not that he wasn’t named NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2022 or an All-Star for the first time this past February.
But playoff spotlight is different. It just is. And that has made this past week vital for Herro and vital for the Heat taking stock of Herro, even with the Heat down 0-3 in the best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference series and facing elimination in Monday’s 7:30 p.m. Game 4 at Kaseya Center.
The degree of respect from the Cavaliers has been to the degree of disrespect from Cleveland guard Darius Garland mocking Herro’s defense; you don’t mock those who otherwise go unnoticed.
The degree of respect in Saturday’s Game 3 Heat blowout loss was to the degree of building a human wall to prevent Herro from even getting near the 3-point line; you don’t try to exhaust a player on one end unless you fear him on the other, and you don’t overplay such a player defensively unless you acknowledge an acceptance of allowing anyone else on the opposition to beat you.
“Tyler cares,” Spoelstra said of anything and everything that has been thrown Herro’s way over this past week, and assuredly will be again on Monday night. “Tyler goes to work at this.”
Herro’s 13 points in Game 3 came after 33 in Game 2.
“Come on,” Spoelstra continued, “he just had a monster game. And what they just said, ‘We’re going to do whatever we have to do to make sure that he doesn’t have that.’ That’s born out of respect.
“We’ll all get to work. And that’s what Tyler always does. But this is playoff basketball. All of the really good players have to go through this. You get schemed and the schemes are on steroids in the playoffs.”
For some, the response would be to call out teammates for not doing more, to alleviate the focus. At the end, that essentially was where Butler stood, before aligning himself with Steph Curry in his trade to the Golden State Warriors.
To Herro, it is about now finding a way, just as he found a way past his uneven Game 1 at the start of this series.
“That’s a sign of great respect. Tyer’s earned that,” Spoelstra said of Herro becoming singular focus. “He’s absolutely earned that, that kind of respect . . . because they know how dangerous he can be.
“We’ve, rightly so, become reliant on Tyler creating a lot of offense for us. And they kind of took him out of his normal stuff, the faceguard and denying. And that led to some of the discouragement.”
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Discouragement more so from teammates than from Herro.
Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies became the first team swept out of these playoffs, going against a top-seeded opponent of their own, with the Oklahoma City Thunder as relentless in the West as the Cavaliers have been in the East.
Monday, the Heat could be next.
But it won’t be for a lack of wont from Herro, who entered well aware of the challenge of having to preserve through two play-in wins merely to find himself amid this full-focus challenge.
“We wanted to be here,” he said. “We were the 10th seed. We had two games to win on the road. We could have let go of the rope then. We could have lost one of those games. But we wanted this, we wanted to be in the playoffs.”
From his arrival in the 2019 lottery out of Kentucky, Herro has wanted it all. In this humbling series against the Cavaliers, he has gotten it all, the attention afforded star power in the NBA postseason. Now he, more than any other Heat player, gets to determine whether Monday night will be closing night.
Continue reading...
