Reliving Tyler Herro’s game-winner for Heat that NBA ruled should have been called a travel
With Jimmy Butler out because of a hip issue, the Miami Heat put the ball in Tyler Herro’s hands down the stretch Wednesday.
The results were undeniably impressive, as Herro scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s 110-107 win over the Sacramento Kings at FTX Arena.
“He’s a gutsy kid and he wants those moments and he really delivered tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Herro, who finished Wednesday’s victory with a team-high 26 points and 12 rebounds. “In the fourth quarter, he made some big plays going down the stretch.”
One of Herro’s fourth-quarter makes was a game-winning three-pointer.
With the score tied at 107 and the Heat starting the possession with 12.5 seconds on the clock following a timeout, Herro took a screen from Heat guard Gabe Vincent to get Kings guard Terence Davis switched onto him. That’s when Vincent and the other three Heat players on the court spread out to give Herro the space needed to operate in an isolation situation.
“Spo really just drew up a play to get me the ball in space,” Herro said, with the Heat (4-5) now taking its first multi-game winning streak of the season on the road to take on the Indiana Pacers on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun).
The 22-year-old Herro took advantage, dribbling to his left and pump faking his defender out of the way before rising up and hitting the game-winning three-pointer with 2.5 seconds to play.
“He’s a shot creator and a shot maker and he’s not afraid of those moments,” Spoelstra said. “That was a big time shot. The only criticism I have is he left a couple seconds on the clock.”
Kings coach Mike Brown had his own criticism of Herro’s game-winner. Brown believes Herro traveled when he reloaded for the three-pointer following the pump fake on Davis.
“The first thing I want to say is we got a lot of respect for their program, the Miami Heat, Spoelstra and everything that they’ve done and Tyler Herro is a great player,” Brown said to open his postgame news conference on Wednesday night. “But he traveled, he traveled on the last play and I would not be doing my job if I didn’t come up here and protect my guys. My guys fought their behind off for close to 48 minutes and to pump fake, then sidestep or hop, and then one-two and a shot, and not make that call. To me, it’s just unbelievable.”
The NBA Officiating Last Two Minute Report released Thursday afternoon agreed with Brown, ruling that Herro did travel before putting up the game-winning shot.
“Herro (MIA) ends his dribble by gathering in the air and landing on both feet (although his left lands slightly before his right),” according to the Last Two Minute Report. “When he moves his right foot, he establishes his left foot as his pivot foot, which he then lifts and replaces to the floor before taking his jump shot.”
When asked following Wednesday’s win whether he believes he traveled on the play, Herro said: “I don’t think it was a travel. But early in the game, they called a travel on me that I also didn’t think was a travel. I think I hit a midrange pull-up right before that they called a travel. So, I mean, just like last night with Jordan Poole. You can call a carry on every play. You can call a travel, I’m pretty sure, on almost every play. So you got to take that one on the chin.”
Although the league admitted the mistake through its officiating report, the Heat’s win over the Kings still stands.
Herro has been used late in games since the Heat selected him with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft. He played in the NBA Finals in 2020 and helped Miami make a run to the Eastern Conference finals last season.
But Herro hasn’t often had the ball in his hands in an isolation half-court situation in the final seconds of a tight game. He did on Wednesday and came through for the Heat.
“It’s different,” Herro said. “Jimmy is usually the one creating at the end of the game and collapsing the defense and making plays. So obviously the last three years I’ve watched around the league, I’ve watching Jimmy and how he closes games. I think I still took a bad shot like with three minutes left in the fourth that really made me mad. I think there are still learning curves.
“I think it’s underrated. I think closing out games is a skill. There are different things that go on toward the end of the game that you really got to make the right decisions. So I still think I could have been better at the end. The shot was cool, but I think I could have still been better.”
Herro will continue to improve in late-game situations. But Wednesday’s fourth quarter provided further proof that the Heat trusts him to come through in the fourth quarter of close games.
Herro has shot 17 of 25 (68 percent) from the field and 4 of 8 (50 percent) from three-point range in fourth quarters this season.
“I mean, he’s put in so much work in the time he’s been in the league,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “He’s had those moments like in the bubble. He’s had so many moments where we can trust him with the ball in his hands and he executed.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 9:56 AM.
