How Tyler Herro wants to help repay Jimmy Butler for his friendship

Herro wants to repay Butler for his friendship this season by helping him play in the NBA Finals for the first time in his career.

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Tyler Herro has a new goal: Get Jimmy Butler into the NBA Finals.

The two Miami Heat players have developed a strong relationship this season, one that started this time last year when Butler invited Herro to his infamous 4 a.m. workouts back in Chicago. Herro even started trash-talking Butler during those sessions and it was at that point that Butler really started to like Herro.

The entire Heat roster has loved Herro this season but Butler has seemingly been his biggest fan throughout the year. The relationship between the two has only gotten stronger as the season has gone on and Herro wants to try to repay that favor and help Butler finally get over the hump and play in the NBA Finals.

He got the Heat one step closer to that goal on Wednesday night.

Herro scored a career-high 37 points in Game 4 to lead the Heat to a 112-109 victory over the Boston Celtics and a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Herro set the Heat franchise scoring record by a rookie in a playoff game, topping the previous mark of 27 set by future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade.

While a trip to NBA Finals as a rookie would be special, Herro acknowledged that he is more concerned with helping Butler reach that goal for the first time.

“I more want to do it for Jimmy, though,” Herro said. “He has been [in the Eastern Conference Finals] before and he hasn’t got to the Finals. I wanna do it for him. He’s been a great big brother to me since I’ve been in Miami and I know how much it means for him to win and I just want to help him get that.”

Thanks to the record-setting night by Herro, who set the NBA record for the most points scored in a conference finals game by a rookie, the Heat are just one win away from returning to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014 and they can punch their ticket as soon as Friday in Game 5.

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