ORLANDO • Rising star Tyler Herro lived up to his name on Wednesday, coming off the bench to score a career-high 37 points as the Miami Heat seized command of their National Basketball Association (NBA) Eastern Conference Finals series with a 112-109 win.
The 20-year-old rookie made five of 10 threes as Miami took a 3-1 lead over the Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven series in the NBA's quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida.
His points total is the second most in a play-off game for a player 20 or younger, behind only Magic Johnson who had 42.
"I'm just going to bet on myself," the No. 13 pick in last June's draft told ESPN.
"I've been doing that my whole life. I went from a small town in Milwaukee to Kentucky, and nobody thought I would survive there, and nobody thought I would survive here. At the end of the day, it's just betting on myself."
Herro upped the ante after posting a post-season-high 22 points in Game 3. His teammates are comfortable banking on him too. After all, the swingman is averaging 36 minutes per game against Boston, making 48 per cent of his shots and 34 per cent of shots from behind the arc.
"Not too many people get an opportunity to make it this far in the play-offs and be in a game like this, but for him, it's another day in the office," Jimmy Butler, who added 24 points, said of Herro.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra agreed that Herro's success has surprised no one at the Heat.
"He is a worker, and he shows up the next day trying to get better every single day," he said. "And he earns the trust - I think it's more important earning the trust of his teammates than the coaching staff, but it's that daily grind when nobody is watching and doing it when most people don't."
The win moved the Heat to within one victory of an NBA Finals berth, which they will try to secure in Game 5 today.
Goran Dragic had 22 points, and Bam Adebayo added 20 points and 12 rebounds for Miami, who rebounded from just their second loss of the post-season in Game 3.
Jayson Tatum scored a team-high 28 points, all coming in the second half, and he knows he cannot afford another flat start.
"I wish we would have played like that from the start. I take a lot of blame, you know, I didn't play like myself in the first half," said the Celtics forward.
Jaylen Brown had 21 points for Boston, who were looking to win consecutive play-off games for the first time since the start of their second-round series against then title-holders Toronto Raptors.
Kemba Walker scored 20, Gordon Hayward 14 and Marcus Smart had 10 points, but the Celtics turned the ball over 19 times in the game. "We've got to do a better job of handling the ball and taking care of it," said coach Brad Stevens.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
DENVER V LA LAKERS
Western Conference Finals
Game 4: StarHub Ch202, 9am
