INDIANAPOLIS — Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro was too busy celebrating to consider that he might have been out of step with the moment.
Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown wasn’t.
So while the Heat headed off into the night reveling in the Herro 3-point basket with 2.5 seconds left that gave them Wednesday’s 110-107 victory at FTX Arena, Brown took his complaints to the postgame podium, insisting the teams actually should still have been playing.
“Tyler Herro’s a great player,” Brown said. “But at the end, he traveled. He traveled on the last play, and I would not be doing my job if I didn’t come up here and protect my guys. My guys fought their behind off for close to 48 minutes, and to pump fake on a sidestep, a sidestep or hop, and then one-two and a shot and not make that call, to me, it’s just unbelievable.
“It’s not why we lost the game, although I don’t think we got a fair whistle. And I hope when the officials go back and look at the game, they could see it.”
The NBA, in its officiating report for the last two minutes of that game, confirmed on Thursday that Brown, indeed, was correct in his interpretation, and that Herro should have been called for a travel, giving the Kings possession in a tie game with 2.5 seconds to play.
According to the league’s officiating report, “Herro (MIA) ends his dribble by gathering in the air and landing on both feet (although his left lands slightly before his right). When he moves his right foot, he establishes his left foot as his pivot foot, which he then lifts and replaces to the floor before taking his jump shot.”
The report does not change the game’s outcome, nor was the play eligible for review during the game according to the league’s coach’s challenge guidelines.
For his part, Herro did not see his pump-fake, double-clutch attempt against Terence Davis through that prism. But he also had not given it that type of thought until questioned in his postgame interview.
First he offered his view of the shot off a timeout by coach Erik Spoelstra, a play that also could have involved a pass to center Bam Adebayo.
“Spo really just drew up a play to get me the ball in space, whether it was my shot or creating, attacking and creating for someone else. I could have shot it or I could have went to the rim or dished it off to Bam or somebody on the weak side for a three. But lucky enough it went in.”
Then he was told about Brown’s comments.
“I don’t think it was a travel,” Herro said with a laugh, as the Heat prepared to move on to Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. “But early in the game they called a travel on me that I also didn’t think was a travel. I think I hit a midrange pullup like right before and they called a travel.
“Just like [Tuesday] night with Jordan Poole, you could call a carry on every play. You can call a travel, I’m pretty sure, on almost every play. So you got to take that one on the chin.”
While Warriors coach Steve Kerr took issue with the three discontinued dribble violations called on Poole in Golden State’s 116-109 Tuesday loss to the Heat, it was nothing like the extended ire of the Kings’ Brown.
“They’re all great guys and good officials,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, we have to go earn our respect. Because right now, people get caught up in the hype and the crowd and the excitement of the crowd and they look at what’s on our jersey, I’m assuming, and see ‘Kings’ and maybe they expect us to lose. I don’t know.”
Brown also was disappointed about a no-call involving Sacramento forward Harrison Barnes.
“It’s just two, like, blatant calls, right in front of guys,” Brown said of the officials. “I felt bad for my players.
“Again, we lost. Got to own up to it. But when you have a team fighting, both teams, both teams fighting as hard as they fought down the stretch of a back-and-forth game and not make the right call? It’s right in front of you, and just say, ‘I didn’t see it.’ It’s tough.”
The league’s officiating report did not cite any officiating errors regarding Barnes in the game’s final two minutes, with the Herro travel the only play cited during that time frame as being incorrectly officiated.
In the Kings’ confirmed view, Herro cleared way too much space on the play they said he took two steps, came to a jump stop, brought the ball down, took two more steps and converted the shot listed as launched from 27 feet to close out his 26-point night.
“If that’s not a travel,” Brown said, “I don’t know what the definition of a travel is.
“Maybe it’s the Miami Heat and we’re the Sacramento Kings, and that’s Tyler Herro and it’s a last-second shot, a walk-off homer shot. Maybe they’re caught up? I don’t know. I’m by no means a ref and their job is hard as hell. But it’s an iso situation, it’s one-on-one and you’re looking at the ball.”
Herro said the mechanics for such a complex attack already had been well calculated.
“I shot the same shot actually like twice throughout the game,” he said, “where I pump faked, he flew by, and I reloaded. I missed, but I can make that shot. I work on a lot of different shots. So I think I can make a lot of different shots.”
Herro said once the defender of teammate Gabe Vincent sank into the lane, the possibility of a drive for either a tie or free throw was reduced.
“When I saw that,” he said, “that’s when I stepped back. And I probably could have got the step-back off. But with that space, I just wanted to test the fence and see if he would jump, which he did. And whether he jumped into me, I could have gotten the foul. Or if he jumped across, I could have done what I did, reloaded and knocked it down.”
Or, as Brown contended, he could have traveled.
“It’s just a shame,” Brown said, “the game was called the way it was.
“I just don’t know how. I’m flabbergasted.”
