Tyler F’n Herro. After proving he can be a great NBA player in each of the last two summers, his 2020 fall got off to a great start with his career-high 37 points to get the Heat up 3-1. Coach Erik Spoelstra was asked about when he knew he could trust Herro in big moments, but he didn’t have an answer and provided a great quote about his work ethic instead. “I think everybody overestimates what you can do in a day, and they underestimate what you can do in months of work, and sweat, and grind when nobody’s watching,” Spo said. He said Herro was “relentless with his work ethic,” and of course it’s easy to tie in all 4 a.m. workout sessions with Jimmy Butler back in July of 2019. Butler and Herro worked out in Chicago back in September 2019 before camp and it’s clear they have chemistry on the court. “bUt yOuNg pLaYeRs cAn’T pLaY wItH jImMy,” they said.
Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics (-3), 7:00 pm ET
Team Totals: Heat 105.5, Celtics 108.5
Injury News: Romeo Langford (wrist) remains out, Chris Silva (pubic bone) is still out, Gabe Vincent (knee) is questionable, and Bam Adebayo is not on the injury report (more below).
Heat Expected Starters: Goran Dragic, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder, Bam Adebayo
Celtics Expected Starters: Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Daniel Theis
Heat Rotation Notes: Tyler Herro played the final 18 minutes in first half and 17 in second half, Andre Iguodala played the final 14 (one mini sub at end for free-throw shooting), Jae Crowder didn’t play in the fourth, Robinson didn’t play in final 10, Dragic played the final 14.
Celtics Rotation Notes: Only five minutes of the “best five” lineup (Kemba, Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum; six in Game 3) and it did close, non-Hayward bench guys played just six minutes combined in the second half, Theis and Robert Williams took up all of the 30 center minutes to start the game (Enes Kanter DNP-CD).
Stevens Quotes: He said that Jimmy and Andre Iguodala at the top of the zone caused some problems. Stevens said the first-half shooting “did us in” in Game 4. Stevens said the Heat did a great job of trying to set screens, and the Celtics had some trouble with the Bam DHO action. He said Miami “never really felt us all night” because the Celtics weren’t able to switch in pressure, especially Herro. He said his team “looked small” at times (may have talked about the no-center lineups). Stevens said Tatum was more assertive in the second half after his bad first half.
Spo Quotes: He said Tyler Herro is not a rookie anymore. He said Boston was “jamming up” on defense, which helped Herro generate offense against a very good defense. Spo said the context of Herro’s shots “are the big separators of this league.” He said he went to a tighter rotation because both teams are doing whatever is necessary at this point, and Hayward does change the dynamic. However, he said he could change it. He said there was more effort in Game 4, but he said It’s probably going to have to be “10X” in Game 5. He said Game 3 was playing “almost exclusively” on the Celtics’ terms.
Overall Notes
*Bam Adebayo hurt his wrist in the final minutes of Game 4, but he said he’s “good” and Spo said Bam just needed some ice to heal. Tim Reynolds of AP reports Bam hurt his wrist in Game 3 and aggravated it. He will get treatment and “he is fine and playing Friday.” Spo also said Bam is good to go. Giddy up.
*The Heat went zone for most of the second half and worked wonders with only an 86.7 O rating for Boston in that time. For most of it, they had Jimmy and Iggy up top, Herro and Dragic in the corners, and Bam down low.
*Boston had their series-high 53 potential assists in Game 4, which matches the 53 from Miami in that one. Miami only converted 20 assists to Boston’s 28.
*Boston dipped back down to 47 drives in Game 4 after 58 in Game 3, and they didn’t pass out of drives as much.
*Boston made 6-of-15 wide-open treys in Game 4, which is a big increase from the 9.7 per game they had in the first three. Miami was just 4-of-16 on wide-open treys in Game 4. They’re also at just 32.7% made on wide-open treys in the series with 11 more attempts than Boston.
Heat Notes
*Bam is just a monster for his impact on the offense. The majority of possessions for Bam had him either running PNR or some dribble hand-off (DHO) action, and it would often happen multiple times in one possession — sometimes within seconds. On top of his 20 points and four assists, he had two more secondary assists and eight screen assists. He also had nine potential assists. Just listening to Stevens’ pressers, you can just sense he doesn’t really have much of an answer for Bam with how he impacts the game on both ends. He can do so many different things to give him such a great nightly floor and ceiling.
*Tyler Herro was the story and as Spo mentioned, he just hit so many timely shots. With 0-7 seconds left on the shot clock, he scored nine points on 4-of-4 shooting while the Celtics as a team scored nine on 4-of-14. Herro also just went nuts on so many different plays. Just off my hand tracking, he had five DHO shots (four with Bam), three PNR shots (all with Bam), a few iso plays (two against Kemba, Smart one), a couple buckets in transition or before the D was set, and some really great looks off ball from great passes or off O boards. Like Spo has said, Herro just has such a valuable skill set for the offense, and it shows. He’s more than earned his huge and impactful role.
*Jimmy looked like he was going to go off early as the Heat really tried to get him on Kemba, but the offensive flow got away from him a bit. Looking at his shots, he was heavily used off the ball, getting six isolation shots, two DHOs (both with Bam), two PNRs (both with Bam), a postup (on Wanamaker), and basically everything else was really off the ball. He’s probably not at the top of Stevens’ priority, and we know Jimmy has a killer instinct to end the Celtics’ season. It could be Jimmy time.
*Thanks to the switch fest, Dragic was able to get some really good looks after going just 1-of-6 on uncontested shots in Game 3 (11 attempts in each of first two). In Game 4, he had 15 uncontested shots, but he somehow made just three of them. The uncontested shots from Dragic are why he’s been so good, so this is very encouraging. The Smart factor may not be as big with so much action in the offense, especially with Herro lurking in many combos. The Dragon is a bounce-back candidate.
*As mentioned in the Spo quotes, he sounded like he was tightening up the rotation because he knew the stakes are so high. You’d think that happens again, so we might not see Kelly Olynyk, Derrick Jones Jr., Kendrick Nunn and maybe Solomon Hill won’t be out there again. Plus, Iggy was so great at the zone D, that Duncan Robinson may have a shorter leash. Jae Crowder also didn’t play well on defense either, so he’s not quite as locked in as he was in the previous games.
Celtics Notes
*If you watched the game and were on Twitter, everyone was freaking out that Jayson Tatum was playing hurt in the first half. As Stevens mentioned, it wasn’t a health issue, and Tatum also talked about that after the loss. “I didn’t play like myself in the first half,” Tatum said. “So I got to be better starting the game off on both ends.” He really took over in the second half with a 37.0 usage rate over 23 minutes to get him to 28 second-half points after his goose egg. Tatum was also getting some pretty good looks all game with 17 of his 22 shots coming uncontested. Against a great defense, your best player has to thrive… even if he’s only 14 years old.
*Kemba Walker said the Celtics were not aggressive enough. He had just eight drives in Game 4 with only two points there. He wasn’t hunting shots like he was earlier this series, and he only had nine potential assists (five assists). Those potential assists ranked third on the team behind Marcus Smart’s 13 (11 assists) and Tatum’s 10 (four). There are a couple concerns here: How’s his knee and is getting attacked so much wearing him down? His shot was short a lot, so those concerns are legitimate. Plus, the Heat have always really defended his strengths well, which makes it crucial that Tatum goes off.
*Jaylen Brown took his foot off the gas in Game 4. After his 19 drives and big transition output in Game 3, he fell to just 10 drives and no fastbreak points. Brown also didn’t have any unassisted buckets for just the second time in the postseason (other one was his postseason-low four total makes on Sept. 5). The Heat put Jimmy on him more than anyone else, but it was actually the other matchups that he struggled against (via matchup data). He should be a bigger part of the game plan.
*The center stuff is very tricky. On one hand, you have Bam just icing Theis, but on the other you’re limited on alternatives. Per the matchup data, Miami’s offense is worse when Theis is out there compared to most of the other defensive options on Bam. The Heat have shredded Time Lord and Kanter in limited time. The Heat are scoring 1.17 points per partial possession when Jaylen Brown is guarding Bam (23.9 sample), which isn’t better than 1.08 when it’s Theis. We have a small sample of Hayward on there at 14.4 partial possessions with Miami sitting at 1.04 points per partial possession. It’s also 1.41 when it’s Time Lord in 19.2 partials. It feels like Stevens’ move should be just to address strategy over personnel, but Theis could be on a short leash in favor of turning to uncharted waters (no, not Tremont Waters). Either way, we can expect more of the Kemba, Smart, Brown, Tatum and Hayward lineup.
Matchup Helps: Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Goran Dragic, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown
Matchup Hurts: Kemba Walker, Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, Kelly Olynyk
