For Heat’s Herro, shift of Celtics series to Kaseya Center is a fresh start
MIAMI — Tyler Herro crossed the threshold in Wednesday night’s Game 2, having now played more this postseason than last postseason, when the sum total of his 2023 playoff log was one appearance, for 19:28 in Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks before fracturing his right hand.
And with Saturday’s Game 3 of this best-of-seven opening-round series against the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center, another step for the fifth-year Miami Heat guard — his first-ever home playoff start.
For all Herro has been through during his Heat tenure, he went into the weekend with eight career playoff starts, with all eight coming away from South Florida, the first five in the 2020 Disney World pandemic bubble, the one in Milwaukee last year, and then the first two games of this series.
Being available and able already has made this a step forward for the Heat 2019 first-round pick out of Kentucky.
“I’m just excited to play in the playoffs again and be back,” Herro said, “which is why it makes it easier for me to make the right plays, because just being out here to have the opportunity means a lot.”
To center Bam Adebayo, these starts for Herro come as the right player at the right time, as the Heat continue in the injury absences of Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck).
“He’s matured,” Adebayo said. “He’s grown as a player. He’s grown in the weight room, in the film sessions. He’s vocal now. He has a responsibility to get guys open.”
As it is, Herro is less than a month removed from missing 20 games due to medial tendinitis in his right foot, with Saturday his 11th game back.
“People forget he just got back not too long ago,” forward Caleb Martin said. “You could tell he’s just glad to be out there and playing at this time of year. And obviously the way he’s playing and just what he brings to our team, we’re super grateful.”
Essentially standing as the lone Heat shot creator amid the ongoing absences of Butler and Rozier.
“You want a guy like that who you can depend on,” Adebayo said. “We have up-and-down offensive games every so often, so having a guy who can pick up the slack, that’s all you can ask for.”
The screen thing
As with many Heat opponents, the Celtics have taken umbrage at times with the screens set by Adebayo.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, by contrast, can’t get enough, and said the Heat can’t get enough.
“He’s turned it into art, because he does it in all the different facets,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not just your traditional, ‘I’m going to set a ball screen.’ He does plenty of those. He takes pride in it, of getting guys open. But he also does it on dribble handoffs. He can do it on pindowns. He can do random ones that really help our guys get open, particularly our shooters.
“And then we want it to be a symbiotic relationship, too. Where he’s getting guys open, we also want to get him the ball, where he can be in his strength zone.”
On the side
As is his wont, Spoelstra downplays the matchup against Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
“I’m not out there playing,” he said. “It’s a collective competitive spirit. The playoffs are so competitive, the margins for error are so small. There’s a couple hundred plays that need to be made and how many of those can you win as a basketball team? That’s usually what it comes down to, are those plays from your most competitive guys.”
Not, Spoelstra said, that there isn’t respect for the coach on the opposite bench.
“He’s very well schooled,” Spoelstra said of Mazzulla. “He’s a good coach. What they do makes sense. That’s why they have a big margin of error.”