Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Aggression nets fouls
Tyler Johnson’s style of play gains referees’ attention
Tyler Johnson understands the possibilities of sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Or his face. Or his teeth. It’s all part of the aggressive bent that has allowed the undrafted guard to emerge as a consistent contributor for the Miami Heat.
The part Johnson doesn’t get is how he consistently can get called for fouls as he does it, which twice happened in th team’s 117-114 loss Friday to the Boston Celtics.
“You can’t have your face in an area, in a place where they can jump into,” Johnson incredulously mulled as the Heat turned their attention to their 6 p.m. game today against the Detroit Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena.
With 37 points on 16-of-29 shooting during the Heat’s back-to-back road losses against the Charlotte Hornets and Celtics on Thursday and Friday nights, Johnson again is providing a consistent boost off the Heat bench, allaying some of the concerns of the four-year, $50 million contract he received in the offseason.
He just wishes his hardnosed, hurt-nosed approach wouldn’t keep resulting in his own fouls.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I guess getting hit in the face is considered a foul nowadays. I don’t know. I don’t get that one. That one is still confusing to me. Maybe you guys can figure that one out and get back to me on that one.”
To put Friday’s whistles into perspective, consider that a major component of Isaiah Thomas’ 52-point breakout against the Heat was with his 13-of-13 foul shooting. Then consider that the Heat attempted only 10 free throws as a team, part of the 20-11 disparity in fouls called against the Heat.
“Yeah, you know, don’t get me started, don’t get me started,” coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team fell to 10-24. “We’re a physical, attacking, aggressive team. We have guys going to the rack. There was a pretty big disparity tonight.
“Tyler is as tough as they come. I can’t even have a spreadsheet of all the little knick-knack injuries he’s got right now, and that’s because he’s a physical, fearless player. He’s going to lay it all out on the line, and that’s what you saw.”
What Spoelstra also is seeing is the growth into a more complete player, with Johnson also producing six assists in Friday’s 19-point effort.
“That’s all season long,” Spoelstra said, “all season long, even going back the last couple years. He’s fearless, so just his mentality is similar to the guy down in that locker room (the Celtics’ Thomas). He wants the moment. He wants the ball. He’s not afraid to fail. Those things you love about him as a competitor.”
Johnson’s postgame frustration was about not receiving a similar whistle as Thomas, making only one trip to the line against the Celtics, making both of those free throws.
“He’s a great player,” Johnson said of Thomas, who came within one point of Willie Burton’s all-time regular-season scoring record against the Heat. “I love his game. He definitely willed his team to victory and he also got into a good rhythm there at the freethrow line. I’ll leave that alone.
“It was a physical game both ways.”
Of his conversations with the officials about how his face somehow has come to be considered an NBA weapon, Johnson said, “I don’t know what they said. It wasn’t a good enough reason for me. I don’t understand it.”
Another irony to Johnson is that he sees the Heat making strides defensively even after a night when the Celtics scored 117 points and shot 53.3 percent.
“I think defensively is our biggest thing,” he said. “Defensively, I think we’re starting to understand how to be in the gaps for each other so one guy helps somebody else and then you know you have help on the other side. So if you stay in the gap and somebody pitches it to your man, you know you have protection, so you can get back to your guy and he’s not scoring.”