With the Miami Heat getting a crucial win against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night, 128-120, the team would be led by star performances from Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. As Herro's sensational night for the Heat set the tone, along with Adebayo, it would be Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s performance that was eye-opening in many ways.
While Jaquez has had an impactful third season, having been one of the candidates for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award, the 25-year-old has recently displayed a new facet that could be a permanent part of his game. As the UCLA product finished the game with 21 points on eight of 13 shooting from the field to go along with four assists and two rebounds, he also shot four of six from three-point range.
It would be the second time this month that Jaquez has made more than one three-point shot in a game as before last Tuesday's win over the Brooklyn Nets where he made two, the last time Jaquez hit multiple deep makes was Jan. 19. Friday saw Jaquez get hot from beyond the arc, as while his game consists of getting downhill in the paint or from mid-range, he would be asked if he's been focusing specifically on his deep shooting.
“No, not really. I'm just trying to continue to play my game,” Jaquez said, via the team's YouTube page. “And if I get the shots, I just shoot them. I work on my three every single day. It's something that I continuously try to get better at. And shooting isn't linear. You're gonna have ups, you're gonna have downs…So just continue to shoot with confidence.”
Heat's Erik Spoelstra on Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s improvements
While the Heat prepare for a playoff push, the team invites Jaquez to add another aspect to his game, but the player himself would say that heading into this season, he focused too much on his three-point shot during his sophomore slump. With his strengths being his downhill attacks, if the three-ball could be complimentary, then it could work in Jaquez's favor as head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke about this improvement.
“I think that's just a byproduct of Jaime just being a great competitor. Does that mean he's going to shoot four-for-six, you know, every single night? I don't know, but he wants to make an impact. And you have a game that feels like this, Jaime is going to put his fingerprints on the game one way or another,” Spoelstra said.
At any rate, Jaquez and Miami look to keep it going with the next game on Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.
