(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Tyler Herro’s Game 4 explosion spawned a million terrible puns and moved the Heat one step closer to an NBA Finals berth.
Tyler Herro is a wispy mustache and a bottomless fountain of swagger. He’s Scott Pilgrim breaking the fourth wall with a whimsical wink. He’s 20 years old and, apparently, an unstoppable offensive engine. He’s also the most visceral reason the Heat are one game away from an absurdly improbable NBA Finals appearance.
The Heat’s zone flummoxed the Celtics again, helping keep Jayson Tatum scoreless in the first half and forcing double-digit turnovers. Goran Dragic, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler each went for 20 points. But the key wasn’t strategy or offensive depth, it was a skinny-a** bolt of white lightning, burning the Celtics to the ground.
Herro went for 37 points on 14-of-21 from the field and 5-of-10 from beyond the arc. He finished up-and-under reverse layups, drilled step-back 3s miles behind the arc and basically did anything he wanted from anywhere he wanted to. According to Inpredictable’s model, the win probability added by his shooting was greater that of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward, combined.
This was just the high point of an extended breakout for Tyler Herro
If you were lucky enough to dig into today’s NBA Power Rankings, you’d have seen that Herro was already on the radar. Even before Game 4, he was averaging 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, shooting 36.7 percent from behind the arc. And after tonight, Harrison Barnes and Jayson Tatum are the only rookies in the last decade to play more postseason minutes (there’s a good chance he’ll pass Barnes in Game 5).
Herro’s 37 points were the most ever scored by a rookie in a conference finals game and it’s becoming increasingly clear that he’s a key piece of the Heat’s present, not just their future.