50 points in two games

Tyler Herro assured in September that he hoped to demonstrate on the court all the work done for this 2021-22 campaign. They were encouraging words for Miami. After an excellent rookie year (especially in the Orlando bubble), the second of his career was an unexpected setback. Irregular in his performance, rumors of extra-sporting problems … Even some journalists began to point out that he was likely to be traded. Well, such obstacles and scaremongering seem to have been left behind. It may be too early to tell, but this Kentucky project seems to have gotten back on track.

On his arrival at the training camp, there was already talk about his great physical condition. He looked stronger, more defined, finer. It was a good cover letter, one that nevertheless had to be corroborated when there was a five against five on the floor. It is doing.

With two games of preparation behind him, the 21-year-old is being the best in Miami. In his debut, against the Atlanta Hawks, he started and reached 26 points. In the second game, against the Rockets in Houston, he came off the bench, but that has not stopped him from shining again with 24 points. That’s 50 points in two nights. Obviously we are not saying that he will average 25 per game in regular season, but yes that for the Heat this is a very important step to return to being contender.

With a brilliant performance in the Orlando bubble in 2020, the Florida team singled themselves out as one of the teams to beat in the 2020-21 season. They kept almost the entire block and were reinforced with other boys. Nobody asked them to return to the Finals, but they did fight it. They could not. The regular season was weak, and in the playoffs they were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. They want to avoid repeating it, and having an intoned Herro brings them closer to that.

In the 2020 postseason, Herro was that kid who destabilized rivals. He averaged 16 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists. A year later he was down to 9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He is not the leader of Miami, that role belongs to Jimmy Butler; neither is the second sword, there are Bam Adebayo and the newcomer Kyle Lowry; but it can be decisive. Herro has in his hands that grain of sand that can tip the balance on the side of the Florida sun some nights.

(Photograph by Mark Brown / Getty Images)