There has been one Miami Heat player that hasn't been bit by the injury bug this season and it is Jaime Jaquez Jr., the rookie sensation selected with the 18th overall pick that has played every game so far. Well, until now.
Jaquez was in line for a historic night Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets as he scored 15 points, all in the first quarter. However, in the second period, he would suffer a groin strain and wouldn't return in the second half. The Heat would beat the Hornets, but the concern for the young rookie was of an utmost priority.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra told the media after the game that Jaquez won't travel with the team to face the Brooklyn Nets on the tail end of the back to back. Jaquez said to the media in the locker room that he embraces the fact that he is available every game for his teammates, but this is an injury he has to “take a little more serious.”
“I take a lot of pride in being able to be available and play games, even through things that are hurting and little injuries here and there,” Jaquez said. “But I think at this point, this is something that I’ve got to take a little more serious and take some time to just recuperate and get myself to 100 percent.”
Jaquez said the groin injury isn't as bad as last time
While any injury should be taken seriously, especially since it is to the Heat's next young star, there was even more concern since a groin injury made Jaquez miss two weeks of the pre-season. Jaquez would say it is similar, but not as “severe.”
“I would say I don’t think it’s as bad,” Jaquez said. “I think especially since we’re on it very early, I’m going to make a very quick and smooth recovery. A lot of prevention is what we’re looking at right now.”
It is not just Jaquez that says the groin issue is not as bad as the last one as Spoelstra mentioned the trainers backing up that same sentiment. Spoelstra would go on to say that after Monday's game against the Nets, the UCLA product will be considered “day-to-day.”
“I have no idea. I’m definitely not a trainer or a medical expert. We’ll see when we get back,” Spoelstra said. “He says and our trainers say that it’s not as severe as the one he had previously. So we’ll see.”
How Jaquez's injury happened
Jaquez retold the events that happened that led to the injury as it was a dunk in transition where afterwards, the star felt off. As it was approaching the halfway mark of the contest, he talked to assistant coach and former Heat player Caron Butler who expressed that he should talk to the trainers.
“When I went up for the dunk in transition, I just didn’t feel that well when I took off. It totally started to get worse throughout the duration of the game. And then it was getting towards halftime and I was talking to C.B., and we talked it over, he said I should talk to the trainers,” Jaquez said. “We went in the back and we came to the decision to shut it down, not try to make it anything worse.”
No timetable on return as of yet from Jaquez or Heat
In terms of the amount of time he will miss, it seems as if no one in the organization knows. Jaquez said to the media after the Hornets win that it will depend on how he's “feeling” on a particular day.
“I mean, we’ll see,” Jaquez said. “We’ll see how I’m feeling. I know we’re going to take it day by day, and we’re saying that for now. But you never know what can happen.”
After Monday night's game against the Nets, they then travel way up North to take on the Toronto Raptors Wednesday. They will come back home Friday to take on the Atlanta Hawks.
Miami continues to get hurt, but they also continue to win as without Jaquez, they got the job done, granted against a struggling Hornets team. They should take time for Jaquez to come back 100 percent as the team would loathe nothing more than rushing him back and causing further injury.
The first-year player has won back to back Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month awards where in the month of December, Jaquez has averaged 16.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 84.9 percent from the foul line. An eye-opening statistic that the absence of Jaquez will impact is that he had played 315.8 fourth quarter minutes when he won the award, which was the most in the entire NBA.
Jaquez had been a mainstay in the starting lineup for Miami, especially with the absence of star Jimmy Butler, who the two share similar play-styles. While Spoelstra couldn't confirm Sunday night, the expected belief is that Butler will return after missing the last 11 of 12 games.
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