It will be another dreadful path back to the NBA Finals for the Miami Heat as their first playoff series will be against the No. 1 seed in the Boston Celtics. With crucial injuries to the team like Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, there is already people writing off the Heat, but star Tyler Herro explains that they are “better when our backs are against the wall.”
“I love this position, honestly,” Herro said after the win to the Bulls in the play-in tournament. “A lot of people didn’t think we were going to win [Friday against the Bulls] and that’s part of it. I feel like we’re better when our backs are against the wall anyways. So we’re going to go to Boston [Saturday] and come up with a game plan with the coaching staff to stop one of the better teams, pretty much ever really, on paper.”
There's no doubt that Miami has embraced this type of position in the past a numerous amount of times with just as recently as last year where as an eighth seed, they reached the NBA Finals. They are in the same predicament, but without key aforementioned players like Butler and Rozier.
Bam Adebayo says it will be a “great opportunity” for Herro
Which means that Herro is going to be key in this current postseason run which is another motivation as he missed most of the miraculous playoff run last year with a broken hand. Long-time teammate Bam Adebayo said that when Herro shows off his best version, he feels like Miami will win playoff games for them.
“I think this is a great opportunity for Tyler. We need him to be himself,” Adebayo said. “Because that's his best version and I feel like we will win games when he's his best version.”
Erik Spoelstra talks Herro's versatility with Heat
Herro also said that it means a lot for him to be involved in the playoffs this season as he will be one of the main featured players on the team. He struggled in the Heat's first play-in tourney game, but came back with a vengeance in the win over the Bulls where he scored a team-high 24 points, collected 10 rebounds, and recorded nine assists as Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra talks about what Herro brings to the group.
“I'm always feeling like our guys are going to go off and seize the moment. Tyler is a competitor,” Spoelstra said after Friday's win. “So he is always going to bring a great mindset to the game and I think that's part of competition. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't, how you respond to it and how you keep on showing up the next day and to the next opponent, the next challenge, I think that's what makes or breaks people in this league. And we needed a performance this from him tonight and he did it on all levels. Defensively, he was a playmaker for us. He played off the ball for us. He knocked down shots for us and they created stuff at the end of offense when we needed shotmaking. So he did it all tonight.”
The Heat and Celtics meet once again in the playoffs as it will be the fourth time in the last five years, though usually it has been in the Eastern Conference Finals instead of the first round. Fans of Miami are hoping history can repeat itself like last season where the team beat the Bulls in the play-in, then went on to beat the No. 1 seed, but this year could be the toughest of them all.
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