“A lot of instances this year, he’s reminding me of another player; I’m not going to say [who]”. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was all praise for Tyler Herro in the aftermath of the Heat-Blazers game. It caused him to even compare the player to another star who many believe to be Stephen Curry. After all, the HC was all-praise about the 24-year-old’s off-ball movement, skill level, handling, scoring at all three levels, etc.

It is true that in Jimmy Butler‘s absence, Herro has played efficiently and improved his standing in the process. Unfortunately, Herro’s rise in efficiency, including Spoelstra’s remarks, may have warned the Lakers squad about what to expect before their matchup against the Heat. Being aware of this knowledge may have been all that JJ Redick needed to turn the odds in his team’s favor.

The Lakers won the matchup against the Miami Heat by a 117-108 score. In the aftermath of the game, JJ Redick revealed that he had caught Erik Spoelstra’s presser in which he had compared Tyler Herro to the unknown entity. Redick had deduced that SPO was comparing Herro with Stephen Curry only.

This caused the Lakers head coach to reveal “I told our team, and Bo told our team in the Scout, at the pregame meeting, ‘You got to treat this guy like Steph Curry’. That’s how he’s playing right now. He’s playing at such a high level. And the threes, and the volume, and the efficiency, has just completely changed him as a player, and he’s become uh just a real offensive weapon”.

Despite having given the pre-warning, it still took the Lakers roster some time to catch up to Herro. As Redick revealed, “That first half, you know, he hit two threes in transition. So, you know, we didn’t do a great job on one of them of getting matched up and he’s got four-point line range and bangs one there. He made some shots in the second half, you know there was a step back three, from the left slot. Off a baseline out of bounds, he curled around and hit tough two. Like, he made contested shots in the second half.”

However, things started to change as the game started to reach its final stage. Redick affirmed that belief by adding “Our physicality, there was a few plays where, off-ball, we just got into him and denied him on a top lock. And, you know, just not having him then involved in the play helps our defense”.

Tyler Herro ended the night by scoring 34 points. Things were certainly looking up for him during the game’s early stage. After all, the player accumulated 22 points within the first half! He went 7-of-8 from the field, 5-of-5 on threes, and 3-of-3 from the foul line. This helped him to record his highest-scoring first half of the season, and the second-highest of his NBA career. However, in the 3 quarter, the Lakers upped their defensive play. They were so efficient that the Heat’s 12-point lead was cut down to 2, going into the 4 quarter. Doing something like this is a tough task even in NBA 2K! Herro was targeted, and he ended up accumulating a game-high 7 turnovers! He even missed several shots. As a result, despite the points he accumulated, Tyler Herro had an efficiency rating of -10 when the game ended.

Erik Spoelstra being proud of his player after one game ended up costing him in the next one. For many NBA fans, the Lakers win would have been nothing more than a simple win. For JJ Redick, however, this may have been the perfect revenge. To get the win after being humiliated by the Miami Heat a few months ago.

Former NBA champion once claimed that Erik Spoelstra would give JJ Redick “nightmares” after 41-point margin loss

The early part of the ongoing regular season was probably more crucial for JJ Redick than anyone else. After all, it was his first time coaching an NBA team, or any basketball team in that regard. Every win would have been lauded, while every loss would bring out his lack of experience. Therefore, it certainly did not help things for the Lakers head coach when his team lost to the Miami Heat by a score of 134-93 back in December. Sure enough, people did not waste time criticizing Redick.

After retiring from the NBA around 7 years ago, 2008 NBA champion Kendrick Perkins went on to establish a broadcasting career at ESPN. This meant that, for a period, he and JJ Redick were co-workers. However, any former bond did not come in the way when Perkins saw the previous Lakers-Heat matchup. Taking to X, he went on to write “Well JJ will be having nightmares tonight about Spoe”.

Given how things transpired in the recent Lakers-Heat game, one can presume that it will be Erik Spoelstra who will be having nightmares now! JJ Redick may still be learning the ropes of being an NBA coach, but using a rival coach’s remarks to his advantage showed that the 40-year-old is slowly learning to make use of opportunities that are unknowingly bestowed upon him.