Tyler Herro Leads Heat Past the Hawks

Even without big names like Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, the Heat have been able to maintain their winning ways.

Fresh off a dominant win in Phoenix, the Miami Heat (25-15) looked to finish off a seven-game road trip against the Atlanta Hawks (17-22).

Herro Ball

The key to the Miami Heat’s success without its stars has been that of Tyler Herro.

The Heat found themselves in a hole early in Wednesday night’s win. Down 27-21 at the end of the first quarter, the Heat were in need of answers.

Well, they found them.

Miami went on to score 35 points in the second quarter and grabbed the lead just before halftime.

It was a Herro chase-down block in the closing minutes of the first half that all but sealed the Hawk’s fate.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1481442245890904064?s=20

Heat fans held their breath as Herro grabbed at his hand after the huge block. Replays showed his hand smacking against the backboard.

However, the 21-year-old was clearly unbothered by the pain.

He went on to score a game-high 21 points and dished out a career-high 11 assists. He came just one rebound shy of his first triple-double.

*clears throat*

Tyler Herro. Same conversation.@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/Io11zgJx5t

— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) January 13, 2022

Too Hot to Handle

Even with the offensive explosion in the final three quarters, the Miami defense came to play. The Heat managed to keep Atlanta’s stars contained on the offensive side.

Miami’s defense kept the Hawks to just 38% shooting and 29% from three-point range.

Most notably, the Heat kept Hawks’ superstar Trae Young to just 15 points on the game.

The combination of lockdown defense and explosive offense allowed the Heat to go up 72-51 after a 16-0 run in the third quarter.

The Heat kept the hot streak going and finished the game with a 115-91 victory.

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1481468373502472194?s=20

Atlanta has now lost nine straight games at home, and the win puts the Miami Heat in third place in the Eastern Conference.

These two teams will meet again on Friday in Miami.