Ira Winderman: Heat could use a Herro, but there still is a formula vs. Knicks
No sooner did Tyler Herro take a dive for a loose ball that was both fearless and reckless in the first half of the first game of the first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, then the pain of the moment resonated in a seemingly crushing reality for the Miami Heat.
The next day, Herro’s right hand was in a cumbersome wrap. By week’s end, he had undergone surgery on his shooting hand, lost for the balance of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
And yet, even with the former Milwaukee-area prep standout sidelined, the Heat found a way against Herro’s hometown team.
The way effectively was Jimmy Butler scoring his own points as well as Herro’s.
That’s not to say that Herro wasn’t missed. And it well could have been that those double-digit fourth-quarter deficits overcome against the Bucks might not have been double-digit fourth-quarter deficits.
Because for all the Heat accomplished in producing the NBA’s top offensive numbers in the first round, beyond Butler there was little shot creation, with the rest of the scoring largely a product of mid-range and long-range success that transcended the actual quality of those shots.
But now it’s different, because against the New York Knicks, against Tom Thibodeau’s defense, Herro’s creativity has been essential, the ability to make something out of nothing when nothing else is there.
In his four games against the Knicks this season, Herro averaged 23 points on .507 shooting in 36.6 minutes per game, at .429 on 3-pointers. In his last six appearances against the Knicks, there have been five games of at least 21 points.
Considering what the Knicks did against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Donovan Mitchell in closing that series in five games in the first round, it likely will take a village of wing threats for the Heat to overcome being the road team in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.
Without Herro and Victor Oladipo, out for months with torn patellar tendon in his left knee, the Heat lack that village.
For all the Heat have in Butler and perhaps Bam Adebayo, the Knicks have a decided edge in wing depth, particularly in creative wing depth.
Herro had stood as at least the equal, or at least the counter, to Immanuel Quickley. Now that is gone. There is not a single reserve guard on the Heat’s remaining roster who creates off the dribble, with all due respect to what 37-year-old Kyle Lowry previously had accomplished in his career.
With Herro, a Heat path to a second consecutive berth in the Eastern Conference finals would stand as a far more realistic reality.
Without Herro, the Heat likely will again need Butler at his opening-round level, Adebayo as something closer to what he was after halftime in Game 5 in Milwaukee, and 3-pointers to fall at a rate similar to what was accomplished against the Bucks.
Tyler Herro’s vibe is a Madison Square Garden vibe, ready to stride in from Fashion Avenue.
With Herro, the road team arguably could stand as the favored team, considering the tight line already in place on the series.
Instead, more adversity to overcome.
Yes, Julius Randle has the balky ankle and Quentin Grimes is dealing with a shoulder issue that kept him out of the Knicks’ final two games against Cleveland.
But neither Herro nor Oladipo are walking back through that door.
That means Butler having to outscore Randle, Adebayo having to bring Mitchell Robinson back to earthly rebounding totals, and Gabe Vincent having to offer a degree of deterrence against Jalen Brunson.
Because Herro is not there to offset R.J. Barrett, Quickley, Grimes, Josh Hart or whoever is the Knicks’ hot hand du jour.
Common sense therefore says the Knicks to take this series, in light of their surgical precision against the higher-seeded Cavaliers.
But common sense has left the room with the Heat, just as Herro and Oladipo are now left out of the equation against New York.
Against the Bucks, there never was the anticipated regression to the mean with the shooting percentage and the scoring.
Which maybe opens eyes simply to this: The Heat have been good enough to make it to the Eastern Conference finals in two of the previous three seasons.
So why not once more, even if they desperately could use a Herro?
Heat in seven.
IN THE LANE
TALE OF JIMMY: With Jimmy Butler again making himself a playoff focus, it has former teammates opening up with their best of Butler. That included a recent Club 520 podcast featuring former NBA guard Jeff Teague, who was part of that infamous 2018 Minnesota Timberwolves workout when Butler strode late into training camp, jumped into a scrimmage with the second team, dominated Karl-Anthony Towns and the starters, chastised the Timberwolves front office about his being underpaid, stormed off the court, and then sat down for an ESPN interview amid this trade request. Teague not only confirmed how Butler tormented Towns during the session, but then noted that Butler removed his sweats after the scrimmage to show he had cut the word “Minnesota” out of the practice jersey and practice shorts he had been wearing. Butler was traded shortly thereafter to the Philadelphia 76ers. “He picked the Bad News Bears,” Teague said of Butler’s choice of playing partners that scrimmage. “Jimmy starts talking to the GM, everybody in the gym, ‘You all better mother-f’ing pay me. I’m like that!’ " Teague recalls Butler’s team winning 18-6, with Butler walking off the court shouting, “Pay me! Pay me! I just beat your team with the G Leaguers.” And of Butler’s workout gear, Teague said, “He got the Timberwolves shirt on, but he cut the ‘Minnesota’ out there, so it’s just chest. . . . He’s out here with a hole in the middle of his shirt.”
MORE CAMARADERIE: Then there’s the more typical form of teammate camaraderie between current Knicks teammates and former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, even if the relationship might have crossed over matrimonial lines recently. “We’ve been super close for I don’t know how many years,” Hart said as he prepared for the series against the Heat. “Honestly, my wife is probably annoyed sometimes. My wife got mad at me the other day. She’s like, ‘Who you about to play video games with?’ I said, ‘I’m about to play with Jalen.’ She was like, ‘Didn’t you guys just see each other?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, technically.’ But that’s how we are. We have a close relationship, We got a lot of mutual friends and family and stuff like that. It’s fun playing with my brother.” The video game of choice that night was PGA. “The golf,” Hart said, “and I won. Just saying.”
TRIBUTE PAID: While the era of gritty playoff series between the Heat vs. Knicks dates to the late ‘90s, the Heat afterward found themselves in gritty series when current Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau coached the Chicago Bulls. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said those games against Thibodeau’s Bulls still resonate in the way New York currently defends. “The Chicago teams that we faced, whenever, 10, 12 years ago, those were some of the best defenses ever in this league,” Spoelstra said. “And there’s been an incredible commitment on their part to still take away easy baskets, protect the paint, protect things that happen at the rim in the modern-day space-and-speed league. And that’s a credit to him and his staff, and getting the commitment and buy-in of teams to be able to do that is not an easy task. And they’ve been able to do it with the Knicks. They have a philosophy that they all buy into.”
RESPECTS PAID: It might have been considered a shocker, considering No. 8 took down No. 1. But the Heat’s five-game, first-round upset wasn’t considered as shocking in NBA locker rooms. “Just some high-level basketball, some great individual performances, some great team performances,” forward Jayson Tatum said, according to the Boston Globe, of the Heat moving on and the Bucks being eliminated. “Obviously, I guess it was a one-eight seed, but it was two really good teams with some great players and great coaches. Just some good basketball to watch from both sides. Miami is a really good team, they have a great coach and obviously they got some great players and they made great plays. I guess people weren’t expecting them to win but I wouldn’t call it an upset.” Teammate Celtics teammate Marcus Smart said, “The Heat is a dangerous team. We all know the Heat play different in the playoffs, and they played the Bucks really well.”
NUMBER
5. Number of second-round picks traded by the Bucks for former Heat forward Jae Crowder as playoff insurance. Crowder, who also had drawn interest from the Heat, played 41 minutes in Milwaukee’s 4-1 opening-round ouster at the hands of the Heat.
