Bam Adebayo Admits Celtics Took This Heat Star Out Of ‘Rhythm’

BOSTON — The Miami Heat looked for Tyler Herro to step up as a go-to scorer with Jimmy Butler sidelined for the first-round series against the Boston Celtics.

Instead, the 24-year-old guard fell flat along with a Miami offense, which averaged just 92.2 points in the five games.

Boston’s defense had much to do with that, suffocating Herro and not allowing him much room to operate. It was clear to one of Herro’s teammates that he wasn’t his usual self on the offensive end of the floor due to the Celtics’ defensive pressure.

“They definitely got him out of his rhythm,” Bam Adebayo said following a lopsided 118-84 Game 5 loss to the Celtics on Wednesday night at TD Garden. “Sending him different coverages, pressing him full court. They just took him out of his rhythm.”

Herro saw truth in what Adebayo said, too. The Celtics limited Herro to just 16.8 points per game in the series on 38.5% shooting from the field and 34.9% shooting from beyond the arc — all of which were far below his regular season averages.

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Herro needed to come through with a massive performance in Game 5 if the Heat had any chance of extending the series. The Heat relied heavily on him and Adebayo to generate offense, but Herro only mustered 15 points on 6-for-19 shooting, including going 1-for-8 from 3-point range.

It had to be humbling for Herro as he was swallowed up by Boston’s elite defense, especially on the perimeter by Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. But Herro tried to look at it all as a learning experience.

“I obviously haven’t looked back on the whole series, it just ended, but feel like I’m going to be able to take away a lot from how they guarded me throughout the whole series,” Herro said. “The face guards, double teams, switches, really crowding the paint when I did get in the paint and then really making it tough on me at all times, not allowing me to kind of see one go through to catch a rhythm.

“I thought they did a great job. But at the end of the day, it will make me better, make my team better and I’m excited to get to work this offseason.”