What the Miami Heat just did for the first time that could be a preview of next season
Since reporting to training camp 53 weeks ago, Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn have experienced virtually everything imaginable in what could be the two longest rookie seasons in modern pro sports history.
But Game 2 of the NBA Finals offered something new and it perhaps served as a harbinger for next season’s Miami Heat:
For the first time in their careers, Nunn came off the bench in a game that Herro started. And that seems the likely Heat path when next season begins, barring a trade involving Nunn or the acquisition of an All Star guard from another team.
The rookies played decently in Game 2, Herro contributing 17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in 43 minutes, and Nunn chipping in 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and an incredible block of an Anthony Davis shot in 29 minutes.
With Nunn on the court, the Heat and Lakers each posted an identical point total in Game 2, which the Lakers won 124-114. When Herro was on the court, the Heat was outscored by one point.
There were defensive issues, particularly one Rajon Rondo blow-by of Herro that drew a rebuke from ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy.
Herro - who started in the playoffs for the first time because of the absence of injured Goran Dragic - made clear afterward that “I have to be better. I’ve got to make more plays and help” Jimmy Butler.
At 20 years and 256 days, Herro broke Magic Johnson’s record and became the youngest player to start an NBA Finals game.
Offensively, Herro continues to thrive. He passed Utah’s Donovan Mitchell in Game 2 and now has the second-most points by a rookie in a single playoffs this century, his 278 points trailing only Jayson Tatum’s 351 in the 2018 playoffs.
Herro is the only rookie in history to score in double figures with at least one three-pointer in his first 17 playoff games.
And among rookies who played at least 12 games in their rookie playoff debuts, Herro’s 16.4 points per game average is third this century, behind only Tatum’s 18.5 and Dwayne Wade’s 18.0.
But more defensive growth is needed, as Van Gundy said Friday, though his metrics aren’t bad. For the entire playoffs, the player defended by Herro has shot 45.7 percent against him, which is the exact same percent that those players have shot against everybody else in postseason.
The Lakers are shooting just 42.1 percent against Herro in the Finals, making 8 of 19 shots with Herro as the primary defender, per NBA.com. With Nunn as the primary defender, the Lakers have shot 8 for 20 (40 percent).
But these numbers don’t reflect the times that a defender allows an opponent to drive past him. And they don’t address the defensive execution when Miami plays a zone.
“I feel like I could’ve been better with having the other team feel me more on defense, rebounding the ball, getting better shots, making more plays for my teammates,” said Herro, who’s shooting 45.0 percent from the field and 36.7 on threes in postseason, while contributing 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.
As for Nunn, the offensive production in the first two games of the Finals -- 18 in Game 1, 13 in Game 2 - has been heartening.
He has shot 11 for 18 from the field and 6 for 6 on free throws in the Finals - a good sign for a player who had shot just 12 for 41 in the playoffs entering this series and six times had been a DNP/CD (did not play/coach’s decision). Nunn hasn’t started a playoff game after starting all 67 regular-season games for which he was available.
In these Finals, Nunn is averaging 15.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shooting 61 percent.
In finishing second in NBA Rookie of the Year balloting behind Memphis’ Ja Morant, Nunn averaged 15.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and shot 43.9 percent in those 67 regular season games.
If Herro moves into the starting lineup next season as many would expect - and he told me earlier this year that’s his longterm goal - then Nunn’s work on a big stage provides visual evidence that he can be an asset off the bench.
For perspective, since 1985, only four players have produced 18 points, five rebounds and two assists in a Finals game off the bench - Nunn (in Game 1), Robert Horry, Manu Ginobili and Lamar Odom, per Stathead.
Herro and Nunn both said they battled COVID-19 earlier this year, but Nunn’s was more hurtful from a basketball standpoint because it prevented him from partaking in the first couple of weeks of the team’s practices at the Disney complex in July.
“You’re rooting for the guy,” Erik Spoelstra said of Nunn. “He had a tremendous year. We haven’t forgotten about that. And I’ve had great compassion for everything that he’s gone through.
“He’s been through a lot and he just continues to grind. I just love coming in every day and watching him put in the time and be ready for his opportunity when it inevitably would happen.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ An interesting social media exchange during Game 2:
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins tweeted “With all due respect to the great @DwyaneWade I believe that Anthony Davis compliments LeBron [James] better than any other player he’s ever played with.”
Wade’s response? “I agree Big Perk.”
▪ The Heat began playing better - for a time - after Udonis Haslem’s angry third-quarter rant. James wasn’t surprised.
“Check his résumé; it’s that simple,” James said when asked what makes Haslem so impactful in that role. “I mean, he’s put in the work. He’s been there through everything that the Heat franchise has seen.
“He’s seen it all, done it all. There’s not many guys that talk about it and also be about it, and he’s one of them. If you want to be in the foxhole, that’s somebody you want to be in the foxhole with.”
▪ Butler scored or assisted on 57 points — the most in his postseason career — in Game 2, according to ESPN.
▪ Per Stathead, Butler became just the third player in a Finals game to produce at least 25 points, 8 rebounds and 13 assists, joining Magic Johnson and James.
▪ Per basketballreference.com, Kelly Olynyk is the first player to produce at least 24 points and nine rebounds off the bench in a Finals game.
▪ Lakers coach Frank Vogel, on the challenges of facing the Heat without Bam Adebayo: “This team has a lot of fight. They are extremely difficult to guard, no matter who is in uniform. Doesn’t matter that they had some guys out.
“They are a deep team, and with Bam out, they become different from the standpoint of more spacing at the three-point line, which presents different kinds of challenges. Obviously Bam is an All-Star and one of their best players, but they become different.”
▪ The Lakers’ Davis joined Larry Bird and Shaquille O’Neal as only players in NBA history with 32 points and 14 rebounds while shooting 75 percent from the field in an NBA Finals game.
