With the Miami Heat coming off a win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday, the team is looking to build some wins in the home stretch of the season, though Nikola Jovic looks to be absent for the foreseeable future. As the Heat's young forward Jovic was working to turn around his season, a back injury has been another setback in what has been a frustrating year.
Jovic has missed the last four games of the season with what's being labeled as “low back injury management,” as he'll miss more time after already being listed out for Tuesday's home game against the Brooklyn Nets. The 22-year-old would give insight into how he feels.
“My back doesn’t feel good,” Jovic said, according to The Miami Herald. “The scan shows I got some inflammation, and one of my nerves doesn’t look great right now.”
The 2022 first-round pick would miss a chunk of time in his rookie season due to a back injury, but he downplayed that there is a direct correlation.
“I was concerned, but I don’t think it’s the same thing,” Jovic said. “The way my back is structured, I just have to manage the way I prepare for stuff and the way I get ready for games, practice, and everything. I have to make sure it’s always ready for any kind of intensity I put it under.”
Heat's Nikola Jovic now dealing with back injury on top of down year
While Jovic received a $62.4 million contract extension with the Heat, lasting four years, the team saw year-by-year improvement from the player to warrant the deal.
However, this season has been a reality check, as he's averaging 7.5 points, while shooting 37 percent from the field and 27.2 percent from deep in 17.6 minutes per game, which is the lowest of his career since his rookie season.
“I felt like this was the moment where I haven’t played a lot, and it just kept getting worse even though I didn’t play,” Jovic said. “I just had to stop because when it bothers you outside of basketball and starts bothering you in doing regular stuff in life, it’s where I feel like that’s where the decision came to, I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
It remains to be seen how much time Jovic misses with the Heat at 32-29, putting them eighth in the East before Tuesday's game against the Nets.
