Cavs should dare this Miami Heat star to beat them

The Cleveland Cavaliers are ready to prove themselves in the NBA Playoffs. Game 1 against the Miami Heat is today at 7 PM Eastern. This opening matchup will show us how each team plans to target the other's weakness.

For the Cavs, their best course of action might be daring Miami’s star point guard to beat them on his own.

Tyler Herro has had a fantastic season. He’s taken a subtle leap into being an All-Star caliber player who averaged 23.9 points and 5.5 assists while keeping the Heat somewhat competitive throughout a drama-filled season.

Herro was electric for Miami in the Play-In Tournament. He scored 38 points against the Chicago Bulls and then followed this up with another 30 points over the Atlanta Hawks to earn an official Playoff spot.

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Cleveland will have options to deal with Herro. But their best strategy might be to play straight into his hands. Herro is a fine player — but is he the caliber of guy who can beat you on his own? Would the Cavs prefer Herro takes a boatload of shots at the cost of limiting his supporting cast? This might be the correct choice.

Forcing Herro to be the hero

The Cavaliers’ greatest advantage in this series is that they have more star talent. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley have decent arguments to be the top three players in the entire series. That goes a long way.

If you are trying to foresee a way in which Miami wins this series — it’s probably on the backs of a full team effort. That means multiple Heat role players having outlier performances that propel them over Cleveland’s top-end talent.

In other words, the Cavs can probably survive a 30-point game from Herro. But a 20-point game from Andrew Wiggins or Duncan Robinson could start to tip the scales. It’s important the Cavs limit Miami’s role players and keep the pressure on Herro to beat them with his scoring.

More than a third of Herro’s field goal attempts came from the mid-range this season. He’s a player who loves to pull up for deep two-point jumpers. This was his bread and butter in the Play-In.

But in the playoffs, these are the shots that defenses will happily concede. The Cavs will want Herro to take these pull-up middies as often as possible.

This doesn’t mean they want to leave him open and concede 30-40 points per game. Rather, defending this action straight up without jeopardizing the rest of your backline defense to take away the mid-range jumper is a good strategy.

These shots from Herro are better than helping off of a shooter or clearing the paint for a potential dump-off pass (or offensive rebound). Staying home and daring Herro to single-handedly carry Miami’s offense would be a recipe for success.

It would take an otherworldly performance from Herro to beat the Cavs with his in-between scoring. The only way this breaks Cleveland’s back is if they aren’t doing a good enough job of covering the supporting cast.

That’s why it’s vital they don’t allow Herro to send them into full defensive rotations too often. If Herro is capable of being the hero, then the Cavs can adjust from there. But it’s important not to concede things before testing them first.