Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Numbers for the Lakers to beat the Miami Heat

3. Tyler Herro

Limit Herro to 14 points per game, on low efficiency

Tyler Herro is having a fantastic first postseason for the Heat. The 20-year-old shooting guard from Wisconsin has been huge off the bench for Miami, securing his place in the team’s long term future.

Herro’s teammates and head coach Erik Spoelstra all speak very highly of the rookie guard and now the entire NBA knows why. Herro averaged 19.2 points on 52% shooting from the field during the Eastern Conference Finals, including a career-high 37 points in the team’s game four win.

Herro hit 14 of his 21 shots in the game, most of which came when the rest of his teammates struggled to get points.

Tyler Herro is very adept at finishing in the paint and hitting pull up jumpers. In some ways his game shows similarities to Denver Nuggets star point guard Jamal Murray, who the Lakers just beat last round. Herro is also among Miami’s best three-point shooters, which means the Lakers cannot afford to ignore him on the perimeter.

Where Herro excels the most is his maturity on the floor. His shot selection has been excellent throughout the playoffs, rarely taking poor shots and hitting the ones he takes at an efficient rate. The reason why the Boston Celtics lost that game four and the series, is because they essentially had no answer for Herro when he took those smart shots.

The Lakers should expect to see a similar play style from the rookie during the NBA Finals since it is unlikely that he will force up bad or unnecessary shots. The only way to slow down Herro is to harass him on defense and make him pass the ball, or simply make him miss shots.

He is a very confident player who has shown he is capable of putting up several points once he quickly gets hot. If the Lakers can limit his scoring to under 14 points per game on a lower field goal percentage around 40%, he will be one less scorer the team has to worry about.