What Heat’s Tyler Herro ‘loved’ about heated Kevin Durant matchup in win over Rockets

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What Heat’s Tyler Herro ‘loved’ about heated Kevin Durant matchup in win over Rockets

Zachary Weinberger, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Sun, Mar 1, 2026 ·

4 min read

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What Heat's Tyler Herro 'loved' about heated Kevin Durant matchup in win over Rockets appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

MIAMI – As Miami Heat star Tyler Herro was in a bigger role in the 115-105 win over the Houston Rockets , he would bring a jolt of energy to the game, besides making shots and being a playmaker. The Heat guard in Herro and Rockets star Kevin Durant would get in a heated moment in an exchange of words as they both spoke after the game about what went down.

In the win for Miami, Herro would be re-inserted in the starting lineup after playing the last four off the bench since he was coming off a 15-game absence with a ribs injury. With Norman Powell out and labeled "week-to-week" with a groin sprain, Herro would fill in the void, and immediately brought energy as both he and Durant were barking at each other in the first quarter.

It got to the point where, after a timeout, Durant and Herro would exchange more words, to the point where Durant had to be held back, with both receiving technical fouls. The intensity would continue throughout the game, with both talking to each other, but it would be contagious as the outing was physical.

By the end of the game, Herro and Durant embraced in a show of respect, as the guard said to ClutchPoints after the game that it was just "competing at the end of the day." Herro would say that Durant called out his defense.

"He was saying, 'I couldn't guard,' then I said something to him. But, we're competing. And at the end of the day, you want to play the best players in the world and compete like that. That's what I live for, I love to compete," Herro said after recording 18 points on eight of 12 shooting from the field, two of four from deep."

ClutchPoints would ask what Herro said in response to Durant's comment:

"Ask Kevin," Herro said.

Bam Adebayo gives his take on the Tyler Herro - Kevin Durant exchange

With the Heat's frustrations growing after the prior two straight disappointing results, with even captain Bam Adebayo questioning the effort level of the team, Saturday was a major step in the right direction. For Herro, he would even say that he wanted to bring an "edge" to Miami.

"Nothing crazy, I know Kev a little bit, just competing. I feel like as a team, we didn't have an edge to us in Milwaukee or Philly, so I was trying to bring a little edge to it," Herro said.

"I mean, we won, the team responded," Herro continued. "So we were down 14-4 at the time, was able to just get some fire going. I feel like we're at our best when we got guys in here that are on edge."

Durant would echo the same sentiments as Herro, saying "those words are just words" and how respect goes both ways with him and the Heat star, via a video by Brady Hawk, as shown by the hug at the end of the game.

For Adebayo, "it's competitors being competitors."

"That's what you want," Adebayo said after recording 24 points and 11 rebounds. "I mean, it gets like that when we play pickup. Y'all just don't see it. You know, that brings the best out of everybody. When you have those types of matchups, you have those types of competitors on the floor, that causes a great game of basketball, and you want to see it like that. You want guys to go at each other and then obviously, best man wins, or best team wins."

At any rate, it was a huge win for Miami as the team is 32-29, putting them eighth in the East, as the next two games on Tuesday and Thursday will be against the Brooklyn Nets .

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