Tyler Herro scored 38 points to pace the visiting Miami Heat to a 109-90 wire-to-wire victory over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday in an Eastern Conference play-in game.
Herro made all eight of his shots in the first half and finished 13-for-19 from the floor, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range. He also sank 9 of 10 free-throw attempts to propel the Heat into a pivotal Friday contest against the host Atlanta Hawks.
“We’re halfway there,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “… We have to recalibrate and get to our prep pretty quickly and get onto Atlanta.”
Miami and Atlanta split the four-game series in the regular season, with each team winning twice on its home court.
The winner of the Friday contest will square off against the top-seeded Cavaliers. Game 1 of that best-of-seven series is Sunday in Cleveland.
Miami’s Andrew Wiggins collected 20 points and nine rebounds on Wednesday, and Bam Adebayo added 15 and 12, respectively.
Davion Mitchell had 15 points and nine assists off the bench for Miami, which shot a robust 49.4 percent from the floor en route to defeating Chicago in the play-in tournament for the third straight year.
Josh Giddey recorded 25 points and 10 rebounds, Coby White had 17 points and Nikola Vucevic added 16 points and 12 boards for the Bulls.
Chicago, however, hardly resembled the team that won all three of its regular-season meetings with Miami. The Bulls committed 18 turnovers and conceded 26 points off those miscues as their season came to an end.
Bull coach Billy Donovan said, “The disappointing part was we didn’t play to our identity. We just didn’t. I talked before the game about turnovers. We had 10 of them, I mean 11 in the first half. … You can’t win like that.
“… We didn’t read the game well enough, and I’m hopeful for some of our guys that this can be a real good growth opportunity.”
Herro bolted out of the blocks with a flourish, sinking all six shots he attempted from the floor — including a pair of 3-pointers — and both free-throw attempts in the first quarter. His offensive outburst helped Miami seize a 39-28 lead at the end of the quarter.
Herro improved to 8-for-8 from the floor after draining his third 3-pointer to extend the Heat’s advantage to 69-44 late in the second quarter.
“Tyler’s a great competitor,” Spoelstra said. “… He knew he was going to have bring a lot to this game. Offensively, he was there pretty much at every level all game long. Quietly, I thought he had a really good defensive game, and we need that as we move on to Atlanta, He wants to prove that he’s a two-way player, and I love that about him.”
The Bulls upped their intensity coming out of intermission, trimming a 24-point halftime deficit to 13 at 93-80 early in the fourth quarter.
Miami, however, went on a 12-2 run, with Herro highlighting that surge by making three free throws, a short jumper and a driving layup.
–Field Level Media
