Herro, Oladipo proving they can play together off Heat bench: ‘We’re figuring it out’
Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo admit their initial minutes together off the Miami Heat’s bench felt weird.
The pair of ball-dominant guards didn’t yield positive results in their first few games together. Oladipo returned from an extended absence following knee surgery to make his season debut on March 7, and the combination of Herro and Oladipo produced a very underwhelming offensive rating of 97.2 points scored per 100 possessions and was outscored by 1.7 points per 100 possessions in their first five games together.
Oladipo then fell out of the Heat’s rotation in the final weeks of the regular season and the Herro-Oladipo experiment looked to be over.
“Obviously, the first couple of games, we came off the bench and it didn’t look too good in the regular season,” Herro said.
But the Heat’s bench duo of Herro and Oladipo has looked a lot better in the playoffs, as the Heat outscored the Philadelphia 76ers by three points in their 27 minutes together as part of its 119-103 Game 2 win on Wednesday night at FTX Arena. Miami, which holds a 2-0 lead in the series, has outscored Philadelphia by 6.8 points per 100 possessions with Herro and Oladipo on the court together in the second round.
“It’s not something that could have come overnight,” Oladipo said, with the series now shifting to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday at Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m., ESPN). “Obviously, we haven’t had a lot of time together. The time we did have, it was kind of limited. So we’re just going out there and playing hard. I think we can control that and just feed of each other when someone else handles, and the other one gets to space and works off him. I think we can work off each other very well.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made it clear that the improved results haven’t come by accident. Herro and Oladipo have worked hard behind the scenes to improve their on-court chemistry.
“Even though they didn’t necessarily hit the wood together with a large sample size, the two have been very diligent with working on their rhythm and flow, and who handles and what actions we’re getting to, making sure we’re getting to both of their strengths,” Spoelstra said. “It has gotten much better. To accomplish what we want to accomplish, you need talent, you need multiple guys who can make plays. You want everybody feeling like they can be themselves and also play with great confidence and flow. I’ve already seen good progress with that.”
Playing off the bench is nothing new for Herro, who was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year earlier this week. He has spent his first three NBA seasons being used primarily as a reserve, closing this regular season as the league’s top bench scorer with 20.8 points per game.
But this is a new role for Oladipo, who was voted to the All-Star Game, NBA All-Defensive First Team and All-NBA Third Team in 2017-18 as a member of the Indiana Pacers prior to undergoing two surgeries to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee in the last three-plus years. He has played off the bench in 10 of his 12 games this season with the Heat, but had played as a reserve in just three games since the start of the 2016-17 campaign before this season.
“At the end of the day, that’s my role on this team and I just go in there and play it to the best of my ability,” Oladipo said. “I can’t really control anything else but my mentality and what I bring to the game. I just try to go in there and make it tough defensively. Offensively, just be aggressive, make the right reads and be smart.”
That’s exactly what Oladipo, who turned 30 on this week, did in Game 2. Oladipo finished Wednesday’s win with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes, six rebounds and one assist while posting a plus/minus of plus-6 in 29 minutes off the bench.
Oladipo served as another ball-handler with starting point guard Kyle Lowry missing his fourth game in a row because of a strained left hamstring and was also used to defend 76ers star guard James Harden at times in Game 2. Harden has totaled just seven points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field in 25 possessions with Oladipo as his primary defender in the series, according to NBA tracking stats.
“We just felt we needed his skill set,” Spoelstra said of playing Oladipo off the bench. “Defensively, I thought he was really good and active guarding multiple guys. He gives us another attacker. He’s also a spacer. ... He and Tyler have been building a better chemistry certainly in practice.”
With Herro and Oladipo both better with the ball in their hands, Oladipo said the decision on who will initiate offense when they’re on the floor together is “a read” because “it just depends on how the game is flowing, how the game is going and then we just play off that.”
“We’re figuring it out,” Oladipo said. “I think a lot of people might have been skeptical or concerned about it in the beginning. But at the end of the day, it’s all about our approach. We’re willing to work together, I think that’s the biggest thing. So we’re going to figure it out and we’ve been figuring it out.”
The combination of Herro and Oladipo isn’t perfect and the offense is still inconsistent when they’re both on the court. But the duo is finding a way to contribute positive minutes this series.
Spoelstra is known to change the Heat’s bench rotation from game to game and series to series based on matchups and what’s working. The tandem of Herro and Oladipo is certainly worth further exploration.
“We can play together,” Herro said. “People don’t think we can, but we can and we’ve had reps in practice and throughout the playoffs. We’re going to continue to get better with that. But just trying to find a balance of who’s handling and who’s playing off the ball. We’ll continue to get better with that.”
