Coup’s Takeaways: Bam Adebayo And Tyler Herro Give Miami Their Chance As Celtics Holds On In Final Minutes

1. This one felt like the early stages of the Eastern Conference Finals, at least early on.

Miami looked like the more composed team through the first few shifts, with Bam Adebayo (27 points on 24 shots) attacking the Kristaps Porzingis matchup, Adebayo shutting down the Jaylen Brown matchup on the other end and Tyler Herro (28 points on 19 shots) making all the shots he never got to take in the postseason. At one point Miami was up, 16-13, but Boston was half a second away from forcing a shot clock violation. Instead, Herro got the ball up on the rim from 30 feet, and 30 seconds later, after a pair of Herro threes, Miami led by 11.

That lead held for a bit, even as it shrunk, with Duncan Robinson and Dru Smith – including one in transition – each dropping in a pair of threes, but as the Celtics calmed their turnover nerves with offensive boards and drives, they eventually took the lead on a backcourt steal from Brown. By halftime, despite 29 combined points from Adebayo and Herro, it was Boston by five having a 25-3 advantage on restricted area attempts – more than Boston had taken in any postseason game against Miami in the past two seasons, though we should note that Haywood Highsmith, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson were all out for the HEAT on the defensive side of things.

All Herro and Adebayo from there as Miami tied it up midway through the third, only for Kyle Lowry to immediately take the lead with a scrambling transition three. With Miami 12-of-22 on above-the-break threes at that point, you could excuse Boston fans for having flashbacks to the most recent seven-game series.

Boston by six early in the fourth after a quick run by Derrick White (28 points on 15 shots), but sure enough there was Smith with his third three of the night to keep things within one possession. Another clutch game, because of course, even as Boston stretched the lead to eight just after the clutch qualifications were met, each side trading incredible defensive plays (Adebayo, as you’d expect, was heavily involved). Miami’s shooting – 15-of-30 above the break at the close – kept them very much in it while the Celtics threatened to punctuate the evening, but their final threes missed as Boston held on, 119-111. The story of the past few seasons has often been Boston’s struggles to score in the final period against Miami, but with their roster changes things looked a little looser as they won the fourth, 32-23, though the HEAT held them to just five restricted area attempts in the second half.

2. For Adebayo, this was a continuation of all the offensive development of last season that he carried into and built on in the playoffs. For Herro, this was a chance to show what he could have offered had he not broken his hand in the first-round last year. Both delivered, and then some.

While Adebayo has hardly been reticent to attack Al Horford in recent seasons, the length of Robert Williams III has given just about every HEAT player a little pause when it came to attacking the rim. Now Williams isn’t there anymore, having been traded to Portland for Jrue Holiday in the aftermath of the Damian Lillard deal, and in his place is Porzingis. Porzingis is an interior deterrent in his own right, but you wouldn’t know it by the way Adebayo was going at him from tip. Granted, Porzingis got caught in a highlight just trying to help on an Adebayo roll and got a couple stops on his own, but Adebayo established early that he was going body to body and getting to his spots, either out of picks – Miami had a lot of success with pocket passes against Porzingis last year – or straight post-ups. The aggression sustained, too, as Adebayo was still taking Porzingis off the dribble in the fourth for an and-one.

Porzingis also factored into Herro’s night, in a different way. When Horford was starting, Boston would often switch 1-through-5. Even with Williams in the lineup, they were pre-switch him out of actions so they could then switch screens small-to-small. But with Porzingis now, the Celtics have him in a more comfortable drop coverage while they otherwise switch 1-through-4, which means Herro has space to shoot anytime he can cleanly come off a screen. And sure enough, with Miami fighting to stay in striking distance, Herro nailed two top-arc threes early in the third – while also taking Holiday off the dribble to the rim at one point and getting Miami within four with a three in the final 90 seconds.

3. Miami point guard rotation has been a popular discussion topic for the past couple of weeks, with Lowry turning 38 in March and Smith needing to prove himself, but tonight we saw great work from each of them as they combined for 21 points on 13 shots, 6-of-8 from three, with eight assists to just two turnovers. Nobody is expecting fireworks from these two, but fireworks aren’t often going to be necessary for them to contribute to winning.

If last season is any indication, Lowry is going to pick his spots for when to be aggressive. After taking just one shot against Detroit on Wednesday, he took seven tonight as he was also more aggressive getting downhill to draw in the defense. Lowry might still be the best passer on the team, setting up Adebayo and Herro and Butler in all of their comfort spots, so even when he isn’t shooting much he’s still adding value – not to mention his defensive playmaking – but aside from Herro he’s also the most likely threat to pull-up off the dribble from deep and that still might be the most important skillset in the league. Miami doesn’t make their run last season without Lowry. His skillset today is still tailor made for that time of year.

Smith also hasn’t been particularly aggressive from preseason through the first week of the season, so it was a bit of a revelation when he pulled up on a fast break to drop in a three. You don’t have to watch Smith, with three steals tonight, for long to see what Erik Spoelstra would like about his defense – good hands always fit into Miami’s assertive scheme – but if he’s going to be a consistent and aggressive shooter, with low turnovers throughout, then he could be of much greater value than people seem to think. He’s a different player than Gabe Vincent, or at least he started as a different player while Miami molds him into a similar role, but the same outline is there in terms of impact, eventually.