The Miami Heat are looking to get back to winning ways on Friday night against the Indiana Pacers, but the task got a little tougher for them during the third quarter.
Starting forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was bringing the ball up the court and turned his ankle while trying to get by Pacers star Pascal Siakam. Jaquez stayed down on the floor and left the game, and the Heat have ruled him out for the rest of the game.
The Heat described the injury as a sprained right ankle, but also stated that X-rays came back negative. That is good news for Miami and usually means that the injury isn’t long term.
Still, the job will be much more difficult for the Heat without Jaquez in the lineup. He left the game with 11 points and four rebounds on 4-for-4 shooting in 14 minutes. Miami currently leads 115-112 late in the fourth quarter.
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The Heat won their last game, a strong effort against the Atlanta Hawks, but they had won just two of their last nine games coming into that one. As a result, the Heat are firmly in the play-in picture in the Eastern Conference and are struggling to climb back up the standings into the top six.
There isn’t a ton of external pressure on the Heat to do anything special this season after trading Jimmy Butler III to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline, but they will still want to get a crack at the postseason.
If Jaquez is forced to miss time, that task will become much more difficult for Miami. The UCLA product is only averaging nine points per game this season, but he has become a crucial part of Erik Spoelstra’s rotation and helps the Heat tremendously on both ends of the floor.
The Heat need to get this win before a difficult stretch of schedule in March that includes dates with the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. Those three teams sit at the top of the standings in the East, so the Heat will want to get wins in the meantime before that gauntlet begins.
