Adebayo, Herro had to adjust on the fly vs. 76ers
Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro learned crucial playoff lessons as Miami eliminated Philadelphia in Round 2. That experience could help them in the East finals.
The NBA playoffs will force teams and players to adjust from series to series and game to game. Just ask center Bam Adebayo and guard Tyler Herro.
On the Miami Heat’s way to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three seasons, Adebayo and Herro were pushed out of their comfort zones in the second round against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Adebayo went from guarding every player on the court to spending nearly the entirety of the final two games as the primary defender against All-Star center and MVP runner-up Joel Embiid.
And Herro went from averaging the most shot attempts on the team in the regular season to becoming more of a facilitator because the 76ers trapped him relentlessly for most of the series.
“That’s one of the discussions I had with [Herro] on the playoffs,” said coach Erik Spoelstra, who now is preparing the Heat for the start of the Eastern Conference finals at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at FTX Arena. “One game doesn’t necessarily lead to the next game. You just have to find a way to put your imprint to be able to help the team win.”
If they didn’t already know that, the 24-yearold Adebayo and the 22-year-old Herro learned that lesson in the second round.
Adebayo, who finished fourth this season in the voting for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award, played one defensive scheme to begin the series and then was used to anchor another defensive scheme to close the series.
According to Second Spectrum, he switched 53 of the 102 screens he guarded from Games 1 through 4 but switched just four of the 52 screens he defended in Games 5 and 6.
The adjustment was made to keep Adebayo on Embiid as much as possible, as Adebayo fought through screens and played drop coverage as he stuck to Embiid. This was a drastic change for Adebayo, who switched more screens during the
The stars of the Panthers — along with interim coach Andrew Brunette — answered major questions as Florida won its first postseason series since 1996.
WASHINGTON
Those too-frequent conversations about the nerves the Florida Panthers battled throughout the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs make more sense now that it’s obvious how Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau and Co. feel about winning.
There was a postgame celebration late Friday in the locker room, yes — albeit a very brief one, Barkov said. There was mostly just relief.
“It’s just off your shoulder a little bit,” said Huberdeau, 28.
“I’m not going to lie,” added Barkov, 26. “It feels amazing.”
The moment is still fresh in Craig Counsell’s mind almost two-and-ahalf decades later.
He’s standing on third base with two out in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series between the Florida Marlins and Cleveland Indians, 90 feet away from glory.
They are not old enough to feel like they were running out of time to make their mark in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But they did, Barkov said, start to feel “like, What’s happening right now?” What might another first-round exit have meant for Barkov, Huberdeau, star defensemen Aaron Ekblad and MacKenzie Weegar, and anyone else who had been around for close to a decade of early endings, especially with Huberdeau set to be a free agent after next season?
It’s something they no longer have to ponder after their 4-3, suddendeath victory eliminated Washington in six games. Their biggest obstacle is cleared and their biggest question answered. It’s
Edgar Renteria stood at the plate with an 0-1 count.
Renteria lofted the pitch from Charles Nagy just above the pitcher’s head, between the middle infielders and into center field. Counsell, with his arms raised high and Pro validation, even as they set their sights on bigger, more meaningful goals.
“Now we might as well go all the way,” Huberdeau said.
Validation does mean
Player Stadium in a frenzy, crosses home plate.
The Marlins, five years into their existence, have won the World Series.
“To be the guy that got to score that run,” Counsell said, “you pinch yourself. It’s a dream come true.” something, though. It means the confidence to keep teams together and maybe an easing of pres
That moment, and the season that led to it, were on full display at loanDepot park on Saturday as the Marlins celebrated the 25th anniversary of the franchise’s first World Series team. Counsell was
regular season than any other NBA player at 17.5 switches per 100 possessions.
Adebayo said the latter strategy reminded him of his rookie season of 2017-18 “when I was zoning a lot and not switching. It kind of put me back in that position.”
Adebayo excelled in both the Heat’s switching and drop schemes against the 76ers. According to NBA tracking stats from the series, Embiid totaled just 28 points on 11-of-29 fieldgoal attempts (37.9 percent) during the 129 possessions he was defended by Adebayo. (Embiid did not play the first two games of the six-game series because of injury.)
“It’s arguably the toughest cover at that position,” Spoelstra said of the job Adebayo did on Embiid. “Then to anchor our defense, to do multiple schemes all the time while he’s in the game and to be able to handle that and then to keep that competitive edge that really drives us. He’s the heart and soul of our team.”
Heat forward P.J. Tucker kept it simple when asked about the versatility Adebayo displayed while toggling between schemes against Embiid.
“That’s what makes good defenders good defenders,” Tucker said. “Being able to switch when needed, stay when needed and do whatever else is needed.”
As for Herro, his offensive numbers were down across the board in the second round because of the way the 76ers defended him.
After he found the soft spots in the 76ers’ drop coverage to average 21.5 points on 15-of-27 shooting (55.6 percent) from the field and 7-of-11 shooting (63.6 percent) from three-point range in Games 1 and 2, they opted to blitz Herro on pick-and-rolls and send double teams his way whenever possible to get the ball out of his hands.
As a result, Herro averaged just 11.3 points on 18-of-47 shooting (38.3 percent) from the field and 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) on threes over the final four games.
“It’s new for me. But I just continued to work through it, watching film and just getting repetitions,” Herro said. “I think that’s the biggest thing — just seeing myself go through the double teams, the blitzes and things like that.”
Herro closed the regular season averaging a team-high 17 shot attempts per game. But he averaged just 11.2 over the final four games of Rounds 2 as the 76ers schemed to limit his opportunities.
Herro eventually came to accept that forcing shots wasn’t the answer. Instead, he realized that the double teams meant more space for other Heat players.
“I think he did a great job of accepting the blitz and making the right play out of it,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “It’s tough getting blitzed all the time. But I look at it as a compliment. Like you’re a really good player if they’re sending two people at you.”
It wasn’t easy, as the Heat’s offense seemed to bog down at times with Herro on the court in the second round. Miami scored 4.6 more points per 100 possessions when Herro wasn’t on the court in the final four games.
If Herro sees that type of coverage again consistently in the playoffs, he’ll be better prepared.
“I got a lot of attention,” Herro said. “They threw different bodies at me, one or two guys at a time. But we have a bunch of great players on this team that can fill it up. If you take away me, then you got six or seven guys that are going to make you pay for that. They’ve got to pick their poison.”
Both Adebayo and Herro took away important lessons from the second round. Their responsibilities and roles could change throughout the playoffs.
“It just depends on what the team needs,” Adebayo said.
Anthony Chiang: 305-376-4991, @Anthony_Chiang