Rookie guard Tyler Herro scored a game high and career high 37 points on Wednesday night, leading the Miami Heat to a 112-109 win over the Boston Celtics in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Miami now leads the best of seven series 3-1.
Miami held the lead for a good part of the opening quarter. Boston held leads early on of 7-6 and then 10-8, but the Heat ran off seven straight points capping it off with Jae Crowder three-pointer and led 24-23 at the end of the first. After a Miami turnover, Brad Wanamaker made a fast break layup that gave Boston the lead once again to begin the second. The Heat though regained the advantage on the next possession and led the remainder of the first half. A four point play by Goran Dragic extended it to six, and then the largest lead of the opening 24 minutes and the largest lead to that point in the series for the Heat was eight as they led 50-44 at the break. Herro had 15 points in 18 minutes to provide the spark for Miami, while Bostons leading scorer Jayson Tatum shot 0-6 and had no points in 16 minutes.
Dragic buried a three-pointer just over three minutes into the third as Miami would go up 12. Tatum finally got into the scoring column hitting three-pointers on back to back possessions, and Jaylen Brown also had one to keep the Celtics in the game. Gordon Hayward would hit a turnaround jumper in the lane that cut the deficit to just three at 69-66 with 3:07 to go in the period. Boston would later slice it to just one as Tatum had a three point play and a pullup jumper as the shot clock was expiring, to finish off a 16 point quarter for the former Duke University star. Miami still led 77-76 headed for the fourth quarter. The Celts took their first lead since early in the opening quarter with 8:50 left in the game when Brown cut into the lane and found Daniel Theis running the base line, and Theis jammed it home to make it 85-84. That would be the last time Boston would have a lead, as Herro the former Kentucky Wildcat proved to be too much. The Heat went on a 7-0 run for a six point lead again, with Herro scoring five of them. Miami was up nine with a little less than a minute left, but the green kept chipping away and when Kemba Walker hit three foul shots after a foul with 9.2 seconds left it was just a two point game at 109-107. Jimmy Butler would hit 4-4 from the line in the closing seconds to seal it, as the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs is one win away from reaching the NBA Finals.
Tatum had a remarkable second half and led Boston in the loss with 28 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. Brown had 21 points and nine rebounds, and Walker added 20 points, four rebounds, and five assists. Also in double figures was Hayward with 14 points and seven rebounds, and Marcus Smart with 10 points and 11 assists. Herro added six rebounds and three assists to his point total in the win for Miami. Butler also had 24, Dragic 22, and Bam Adebayo had 20 points and 12 rebounds. The Celtics committed 19 turnovers to only eight for the Heat, with many critical mistakes at big times in the game. Herro became the second highest playoff scorer for a player that is 20 years old or younger in NBA history. His 37 is now only behind the 42 Magic Johnson put up in a 1980 NBA Finals contest. Miami looks to finish off the series when game five tips off Friday night at 8:30 p.m.
