As the Miami Heat won their first NBA In-season tournament game against the Washington Wizards, guard Tyler Herro recorded another great performance. While the team has been on a slow start to the season, one of the few constants on the team has been Herro.

It's not a secret that Herro has a huge chip on his shoulder due to the massive trade rumors throughout the off-season and the doubters looming large, but he's silenced them so far this season. In fact, in the Heat win against the Wizards, he was one assist shy of recording his second triple-double of his career as he scored 24 points, collected 11 rebounds, and had nine assists.

Herro said after the game that he was aware about how close he was to the triple-double, but at the end of the day for him, the win for the Heat is the most significant factor.

“Yeah, I was aware of it. My teammates were trying to turn to help me get that last assist,” Herro said. “We play to win you know, we had the lead big and I think, more importantly, just closing out the game. You know, I wasn't trying to get my 10th assist, I'll get a triple double at some point. If it happens, if not, we'll take the win.”

Erik Spoelstra sees Tyler Herro the playmaker

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While the main attribute to Herro is his scoring ability as he leads the team in points per game with 26.2 points, he was making excellent passes and active on the glass. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that him learning different defenses has helped him tremendously.

“The playmaking is something that's been happening for now over a year. And he's getting used to all the different coverages that the great players receive. The switches, aggressive coverages, the drop zones, and then the blitzes tonight,” Spoelstra said. “As long as he can get the ball out of the trap and make the right the right reads, it didn't take him out of his rhythm at all, which is important for us. But he studies it, he works on it. And it's just as a credit to the work that he put in behind the scenes, it's not just about the scoring.”

Herro said that it's fun to see the different defenses teams throw at him because it shows how much the opposing team respects his game. He even compares himself to a machine.

“It's fun being able to every single year kind of have to toggle with different coverages and learn different coverages. I mean, that's what all the great players want, is that respect from their opponents and from the league,” Herro said. “To be able to go up against some of the best defenses and different blitzes, double teams, traps. I feel like I'm a machine I can keep going all game.”

Herro making a case for his defense

An aspect of Herro's game that flies under the radar is his defense. However, Herro told the media after the Heat game against the Wizards that he's not a “bad” defender and that he's been learning to get better as his career moves forward.

“I'm not a bad defender, I'm trying to tell you guys.I'm decent. I'm getting better, I'm telling you. At Kentucky, I was the best defender on our team at Kentucky and in the league you got to learn a bunch of different things. It doesn't just come like this and being a rookie younger guy in the league, you're already set back a couple of years because you have to learn everything,” Herro said.

“I've been playing since I was 19. So just being able to pick up on things, learn things, and take them over to the next season just continuing to build off that I think I'm just gonna continue to be a solid defender.”

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Bam Adebayo compliments Herro on his improvements

It isn't just himself and Spoelstra that has noticed the improvements Herro has been making. Heat big-man Bam Adebayo sees the work that Herro has put in to become an all-around player rather than just focusing on making a shot.

“He doesn't want to look at the basket anymore because he's that skilled, he just gets to his shots,” Adebayo said. “But he's made himself more dynamic to the point where if you blitz him, he makes a crosscourt pass. He's really improved on looking off guys with his eyes and hitting pin-point passes. He's really grown into that.”

The Heat are going to need more of his playmaking ability if they want to recover from their early slump. However, the win against Washington was an exceptional start and Herro will only continue to get better as a part of the Heat. The team's next challenge is against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday at home.