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In typical fashion for this current Miami Heat squad, Erik Spoelstra's group gutted out a 112-109 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, led by their two wings: Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro.
Miami now holds a 3-1 series lead over Boston, putting them within one victory of the franchise's first Finals appearance since 2014.
The star of Game 4 was Herro, who, at 2o years old, became the first rookie to score that many points in the conference finals. Herro drips with swagger and confidence, and that was on full display on Wednesday: the no. 13 overall pick went 14-for-21 from the field in 36 minutes off the bench, hit five three-pointers, and grabbed six rebounds.
Miami's typical top option, Butler, unsurprisingly thrived in the gritty affair. Jimmy Buckets scored 24 points on 9-for-20 shooting, got to the free-throw line nine times (making eight), and added nine rebounds and his usual stellar defense.
The defeat will sting for Celtics fans, but this factoid may hurt even more: Both players could have been wearing green.
The Athletic's Sam Amick pointed out (citing reporting from NBC Sports Boston’s A. Sherrod Blakely), Miami's decision to draft Herro in 2019 caused a “collective moan” from Boston's brass, who were apparently keen on him at no. 14. Boston lost a coin-flip to Miami that determined the draft order and ended up taking Romeo Langford.
Boston also had a golden opportunity to select Butler with the 27th pick in the 2011 draft, but opted for JaJuan Johnson — an oversight that still “gets talked about in Celtics' front office circles,” per Amick,
During an appearance on the “Tampering” podcast with Denver Nuggets GM Tim Connelly, Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren acknowledged that Boston was still lamenting the decision to take Johnson over Butler.
“I think the [draft choice] we talk about the most internally is Jimmy Butler and JaJuan Johnson,” Zarren said. “We had it narrowed down to those two guys, and picked the wrong one….We should have picked Jimmy, and we didn’t. Everybody’s got those, and you just sort of have to move on.”
In the moment, the pick was understandable: Johnson had a more prolific four-year career at Purdue, while Butler was considered more of a wild card after beginning his collegiate career in community college before three seasons at Marquette.
Johnson played 36 games as a rookie and now plays for Bayern Munich in the EuroLeague.
Of course, Boston has selected two pretty good young wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in recent lotteries, so they can't be too beat up about their drafting.
