Among the many things that Heat fans can be happy about right now is the fact that their first-round draft choice is playing quite well in the playoffs. I feel like the uptick in intensity between regular-season games and playoff games might be overstated, but there is some truth to the idea that it becomes harder to get buckets in the playoffs because teams have a concrete reason to play good defense other than the ever-nebulous “win-loss record”. So the fact that Herro has actually upped his scoring output in the playoffs, when teams are actually making more of an effort to stop him, is encouraging. Not every rookie can do that. A lot of rookies wither under that newfound pressure (coughKENDRICKcoughcoughNUNNhackwheeze).
Herro isn’t at the point yet where he’ll take over playoff games all by himself, but actually that’s just me talking nonsense because he could totally take over a playoff game if the stars aligned and he didn’t get frozen out of the offense by jealous costars. He’s only played in six playoff games in his fledgling career, so he hasn’t had that many chances to drop thirty-burgers while also being the secondary ball-handler and also making girls swoon with his boy-next-door good looks.
In fact, if he did that very thing in game three of this series, I would be the person who is least surprised. I would be upset, and I would probably disavow Herro (switching my allegiances to Matt Thomas when it comes to DTB-favored white players from Wisconsin) but I wouldn’t be surprised.