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The season is on the line for the Miami Heat on Wednesday night as they battle in the NBA Play-In Tournament against the Chicago Bulls. As the No. 10 seed, the Heat had to go on the road to Chicago in order to keep their season alive, but that has been no problem so far.
The Heat jumped all over the Bulls right from the opening tip, silencing the United Center crowd and racing out to a 71-47 lead at the half. Tyler Herro had his fingerprints all over the first half with an incredible performance: 23 points on a spotless 8-for-8 from the floor including three 3-pointers. Herro also added three rebounds, three assists and made all four of his free throws.
The Bulls had absolutely zero answer for Herro all half long as he got to his spots consistently and did not miss. Chicago is relatively young and inexperienced in playoff situations, and Miami's experience showed throughout the first half.
The former Kentucky star wasn't the only Heat starter to have a big impact in this one. Andrew Wiggins also added 12 points in the opening two quarters while Bam Adebayo added 11 and seven rebounds.
Erik Spoelstra also had his group ready to go on the defensive end right from the jump as well. A Bulls offense that has been very good down the stretch of the regular season shot just 19-for-43 from the floor in the first half and turned the ball over 11 times. A big reason for that was Spoelstra's decision to put Adebayo on point guard Josh Giddey to start the game, not allowing the Australian to get into his usual rhythm.
Heat fans have become accustomed to Spoelstra putting together genius defensive game plans in the playoffs over the years, helping his Heat squads come up big in big games time and time again. When someone like Herro is able to get it going to this degree, Miami is till very tough to beat even at the end of a frustrating season.
