Heat beats Celtics, now a win from Finals after 37 points from conquering Herro | Opinion
And a little child shall lead them.
That’s a Bible verse. It’s now gospel to Miami Heat fans.
The Heat is one win from a spot in the NBA Finals because Tyler Herro — the 20-year-old rookie whose name really is pronounced “hero” — wouldn’t have it any other way Wednesday night.
Miami beat the Boston Celtics 112-109 in Game 4 in the Orlando bubble to go up 3-1 in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference finals — led by Herro’s career-high 37 points on 14-for-21 shooting including five three-pointers. Fifteen of Herro’s points came in the telling fourth quarter.
The Heat can close out the series Friday night, or face a Game 6 Sunday.
To call this an extraordinary time in sports would be a colossal understatement whether you were talking about it from an overarching national view or based solely on what’s happening in South Florida.
All of the major sports are going on all at once, a crazy, scary, amazing all-you-can-eat buffet caused by the ongoing coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. It has delayed or truncated just about everything over the past six months, pushing some sports into “bubbles” and keeping all of most fans out of stadiums and arenas.
It is a history-making situation the likes of which we will (hopefully) never see again.
Inexplicably, it’s as if the anxiety and tumult have brought out the best in Miami sports — even though South Florida has been a hotspot for the virus threat through much of this.
If it’s all a coincidence, it’s a merry one, a reason to cheer in a year when feeling happy has so often been a challenge.
The Miami Heat, with Wednesday night’s triumph, have seized command with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern finals. A team with a losing record last season is now one win from playing for an NBA championship ... perhaps against old friend LeBron James?
The Heat might be the most surprising, unexpected story in sports right now.
Except it isn’t even the most surprising, unexpected sports story in Miami.
That would be the Marlins, the rebuilding team nobody nobody nobody expected to make the baseball playoffs or even be in the chase this year. But here they are into the last week of this compact 60-game MLB regular season with a huge chance to do just that.
This was a Marlins team that went 57-105 last year, and whose 2020 season was wrought with a spate of early postponements, the roster decimated because so many players tested positive for COVID. If they aren’t already etching Don Mattingly’s name onto the manager of the year trophy, start a federal inquiry.
The Marlins lost a fourth game in a row Wednesday night but still had a 78.9 percent likelihood of reaching the postseason, based on ESPN’s computer model.
It doesn’t end there.
Miami Hurricanes football finished last season 6-7 with some embarrassing defeats, first-year coach Manny Diaz under fire. Today UM is 2-0 and ranked No. 12 in the nation entering Saturday’s home game vs. Atlantic Coast Conference rival Florida State.
Add Inter Miami, the expansion Major League Soccer team. David Beckham’s lads were winless pre-pandemic, started 0-5, but have since won three and drawn two of their past seven matches, making a couple of major international signings along the way.
Even the Dolphins! Yeah, they’re 0-2 entering Thursday night’s game at Jacksonville. But the team’s improvement over last season is plain to even novice eyes, Miami’s old flagship franchise finally pointed right. And the eventual unveiling of rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — the anticipation of it — is the centerpiece of brighter days to come.
Ah, but eyes are on the Miami Heat right now. The team closest to a chance at a championship. The team that wasn’t supposed to still be playing — but is, and rather spectacularly at that.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 11:37 PM.
