Eric Reid, Miami Heat TV Play-By-Play Broadcaster

Eric Reid, the TV play-by-play man for the Miami Heat, joins us right now on the Zach Gelb show. Eric, appreciate the time. How are you?

I'm doing well, Zach. It's always great when your team is in a Final Four, if you understand my drift there. Yes, so this is a very interesting series because it looked like Miami was surprisingly going to quickly dispose of the Boston Celtics when they were up 3-0, then they lose that game four last night. They just didn't show up. Everyone talks about momentum is shifting now to Boston.

Are you ready to go there? Because I still feel like, I feel good about Miami winning this game six coming up tomorrow night. Well, each game's its own separate entity, Zach, and really doesn't have anything to do with the game that passed other than, you know, in every playoff series I think there's one general rule.

Can the team that won the previous game match the energy and urgency of the team that's coming off a loss? So, listen, give Boston credit. The last two games they have played like they are capable of, and to be honest with you, like we expected they would through the whole series, give Miami credit for containing them over the first three games, contain their three-point shooting, control their own turnovers, and played the game on their terms over the last two games. You know, I look at the Celtics over 50% from the field in both, 18 threes in one, 16 in the game last night, four 16 turnovers in both of their wins, and when you're getting 27 points a game off turnovers and set averaging 17 threes a game, that's going to be tough to beat. And plus, the way their backcourt played last night, Zach, listen, if Derek White and Marcus Smart can do that again, then yes, the Celtics have momentum.

You know, that's what made them, you know, really powerful last night. You know you're going to get it from Tatum and Brown, but White and Smart outscored Struce and Lowry, I think it was 47 to 8, and that just can't happen again if the Heat are going to win another game in this series. That's the key to the series, and that's the key to Boston.

If they get to 40% or more from three, they're basically unbeatable. How does Miami go back to making them struggle from three where they were earlier in this series? You know, as crazy as it sounds, Zach, I really think it starts on the offensive end for Miami. I think that's where the Heat lost the last two games, and that's how the Celtics are getting their offense going. They're turning Miami over.

They're speeding up the tempo of the game. Many of their threes are coming in transition. They're getting a lot of wide open looks, and shots are dropping for them now. So the Heat got to control their turnovers and really run the offense through Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. They're Miami's best two players, and they've got to play like that in the game tomorrow night. You know, Bam has had three tough games in a row offensively. The Celtics, after a really strong start to the series, the Celtics are sending two and sometimes three defenders at him to try to clog the middle. They're doing the same with Butler.

Listen, Joe Mazzulla got a lot of criticism early. He's made a couple of the shrewd moves as this series has progressed. Why Grant Williams wasn't in the rotation at the beginning, that's a question for him to answer, but he's been a factor since being put back in. And making the change after starting Robert Williams, the first two games at center alongside Horford, taking him out, putting Derek White in has made them a little smaller, but a lot quicker. I think better defensively, believe it or not, and much better offensively.

Eric Reed here with us, the TV play by play man for the Miami Heat. Do you expect Gabe Vincent to give it a go tomorrow night? I hope so. You know, who, listen, I don't know the severity of his injury, so I'm just guessing, um, based on who he is, how mentally and emotionally strong he is, how much he will want to play.

I think he will. You know, sometimes when guys play with injuries, it's not whether they will play or not. It's how well can they play with, with those injuries. So listen, Gabe's been a huge part of it. It's not that he's the quote unquote point guard.

He's not the quarterback of the offense. That's Jimmy Butler. But Gabe gives you 94 feet of defense, um, of, you know, potentially a strong three point shooter and a guy that has fared well against Jalen Brown in this series. The Heat clearly missed him. Although I did think Heywood Highsmith earned another look. He was really good for Miami and as a guy that can defend Tatum or Brown played 33 minutes in the last game for Miami after playing seven scoreless minutes in the series prior to last night. Did you have a problem at all with the Heat effort last night, Eric Reed?

You know, yes, I think we all did. And, and it was, it was too passive, you know, only 10 free throw attempts. Um, you know, again, only 78 field goal attempts, the 16 turnovers hurt them. Boston, you know, the offensive rebounds, when it ended up, it was only 1210 Boston. But when the Celtics offensive boarded last night, it was debilitating because, you know, they shot pretty well over 50%. They were 40% from three and too many guys were on target for Miami to deal with. And listen, last two games, the heat 96 and 97 points. There's a team that was averaging 120 in the series prior to the last two average, 124 in the first round series against the bucks. The Nick series was different, much lower scoring, but listen, this is really not a surprise.

A shock would have been a sweep. Boston's too good for that. This is really the kind of series we anticipated. It would be the, the, the gut twisting turns of, of a typical playoff series. And we'll see if, listen, the heat going to get their third chance tomorrow night.

And it's probably let's be real. Not, it's not their last chance, but it's their best chance to win this series in front of their home crowd. I know anything could happen in a game seven, but it feels like this series gets decided tomorrow night. Clearly if the heat win they're off to the NBA finals, but if this goes back to Boston with Boston and I know they have not been great at home, but they have a game seven in that building, it's going to be tough to pick against the Celtics in a game seven. Listen, obviously, but who's picking the heat? You know, they've been an underdog in pretty much every playoff game they've had.

There may be one or two that they've been favorite. Nobody expected the heat to still be here and nobody down here is thinking about game seven in the playoffs. It's all about staying in that present moment and not make it too big. And for sure, it's not going to be too small. Everybody knows what, what both teams are playing for it. It's an ultimate matchup. It really is think about the heat is a win away from going to the finals for the seventh time in franchise history and the Celtics know there's no margin for error. Their season ends with a loss.

You can't ask for a better stage or, or better competition. We're all looking forward to what we think is going to be a great and memorable game six. And listen, this is, it took the heat six to beat the Knicks. So to think you're going to get rid of the Celtics sooner than that was probably foolish. Um, and we'll see if the heat can, can do what they've done. Uh, they have not trailed on a playoff series yet this year.

Uh, tomorrow again, a great chance to do it. And I think it was going to take a great effort from their best player, Jimmy Butler. He's the leader. He's, he's got the swagger and the confidence and the talent and the skill and the will to back it up. I think he's got to have a super aggressive game. You know, he took 10 shots last night to me.

I hope he's over 20 shots and over 30 points. I think that would enhance Miami's chances, obviously winning that game tomorrow. And I gotta, I gotta believe that Jimmy's going to have a monster game tonight after what let's just call it. What it was was a bad game five being in that home building.

I know they had a chance earlier to close them out at home, but feeling all the pressure. I kind of expect Butler to show up big tomorrow night and win this series. Eric, I know he's going to try his hardest and you know, listen, we call him playoff Jimmy for a reason. He plays at an extraordinary level in the post season. Nobody more than Jimmy remembers how painful it was to lose in game seven at home to these Celtics in last year's conference finals. Remember that he'd lost three games at home in that series to Boston.

They got a chance to atone for that. This whole season is about getting back to this moment. And no matter how it goes for Jimmy, the intent, the purpose, the mission, uh, he knows, he knows what it's all about and what is expected of him. And listen, he's usually great at figuring out what his team needs for him to win the get that game that they're in. And tomorrow night, that is plenty. A lot will be asked of and expected of, uh, of Jimmy Butler. He's Miami's best player. I sometimes think the guaranteeing of a game gets a little blown out of proportion because what do you expect a player to say?

Oh, we're going to go out there and lose a game of a playoff game. Like you would never hear that from someone, but what did you make about Jimmy's comments after the game last night? Yeah. Typical of Jimmy. Uh, you know, we did an interview with him that sort of got retweeted.

It resurfaced this week. It was middle of the season, uh, or around the all star break, I would say. And the heat we're starting to turn it around. And we did a post-game interview with him, uh, after a heat when I said, what are you expecting out of the second half?

And he just deadpan a championship. That's a little bit about how the heat are wired and built and what they're playing for each year. And, you know, they're a win away from getting the compete for a championship against a great Denver team, but listen, Boston had the second best record in the league. They went to the finals a year ago.

It is a tough, proud, talented group. If the heat get it done, it's a stunning, major accomplishment. You know, Miami's trying to make that kind of history. It's not about being, you know, the first eight seed since, you know, 99 to make the finals. They're, they're, they're trying to win this game tomorrow and then go out and try to win themselves an NBA championship. One last thing on, on a side note with Miami, if they go to the NBA finals, what's the status of Tyler here looking like? Don't know. Don't know the cast is off. Obviously everybody saw it shooting around, uh, before the last game, who knows, you know, I, I think the original timetable, uh, was sort of, sort of figured in well, if the heat wherever to make the finals, remember he got hurt in the very first playoff game that, that game one win at Milwaukee broke his severe broken hand.

I don't know if it's realistic or not. Um, but we'll just have to wait and see. He's not playing tomorrow that, that much.

We know Eric Green. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the series. Thanks so much.

Hope to thank you. There you go. Eric Reed joining us, the TV play by play man for the Miami heat. We will take a break when we come on back a new report about LeBron James and his future. We'll get to all that on the other side.