Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland made waves and may have provided some bulletin board material when he called out Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro during his postgame media session on Wednesday night.
“Pick on Tyler Herro and take care of the ball,” Garland said when asked about Cleveland’s strategy in the series. “Don’t get caught in tight spots and focus on their weaker defenders.”
On one hand, Garland isn’t wrong. The Cavaliers have spent the first two games hunting Herro on defense, and have a 2-0 lead in the series to show for it. But as the series shifts to Miami, people may expect Herro to react.
Tyler Herro responds to Darius Garland.
After Friday’s practice in Miami, Herro snuck in some jabs of his own.
“The game plan is the game plan,” Herro told reporters. “There was some back and forth between me and Darius on the court. To go to the media to talk about a game plan ‘this or that’ kind of says a lot about him. I’m not worried about Darius Garland. I’m worried about winning a playoff game, and that’s what we came back to Miami to do.”
When asked if Garland’s comments were out of line, Herro shrugged.
“It’s cool,” Herro said. “At the end of the day, it’s competitive. But somebody who doesn’t play defense shouldn’t be talking. He don’t play any defense. We’ll see that tomorrow. I have enough fuel in me, in this locker room, around the organization, in the building, I don’t need any fuel from that guy over there.”
Game 3 is 1 p.m. Saturday at Kaseya Center.
While Garland’s comments were aggressive, they are also true. The Cavaliers are averaging 1.2 points per possession on the 50 times Herro has been the screener defender. An elite mark.
Still, as Herro pointed out, Garland is one to talk. Heat players are shooting 66.7% in the series when defended by Garland, compared to 63.6% when Cavs players are defended by Herro, according to NBA.com data.
The Heat have had a more difficult time targeting Garland as much as the Cavs are targeting Herro. There are several reasons for that, but the main one is that the Heat don’t have a primary scorer at the level of Donovan Mitchell, who relentlessly attacked Herro while scoring 17 points of his 30 points in the fourth quarter of Game 2.
But after these comments, it wouldn’t be a surprise to Herro go at Garland a little more.