Tyler Herro hit every big shot possible for the Miami Heat Tuesday night. Then their veteran coach blew the game by calling a timeout he didn’t have.
After Herro hit a shot with 1.1 seconds to go in overtime, the Heat had a 121-119 lead. Then, it all fell apart.
Miami got confused before the Detroit Pistons’ inbounded the ball, sending out six players. Then they gave up an alley-oop to Jalen Duren to tie the game. Finally, Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout his team didn’t have, resulting in a technical foul and a game-winning free throw from Malik Beasley.
The meltdown ruined what was an incredibly clutch effort from Herro. Besides hitting what should have been the game-winner in OT, Herro dragged the Heat to overtime with a three-point flurry late.
The Heat guard made six three-pointers in the last 6:45 of the fourth quarter, with three coming in the final 1:22 with the Heat trailing by six points.
For the fourth quarter, Herro had 18 points and two assists. He took a break from his three-point onslaught to hand out two assists, part of his eight for the game.
After the game, Spoelstra took responsibility for the timeout error that cost Miami the game.
He told reporters, “I made a serious mental error … There’s no excuse for that. I’m 17 years in … I made a horrendous mistake.”
Spoelstra was so discombobulated by the error that he tried to sub in Kevin Love for a lob pass after Beasley’s free throw, not realizing that his mistake also gave Detroit possession of the ball.
One spectator may have been having flashbacks watching Spoelstra’s gaffe. Jalen Rose, who saw his Michigan teammate Chris Webber call a timeout their team didn’t have in the NCAA final in 1993.
Ultimately it was a night Herro will never forget. And neither will his head coach.
