{"id":707552,"date":"2026-04-10T17:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:30:32","slug":"miami-heats-jaime-jaquez-jr-comes-around-with-3-point-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707552\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. comes around with 3-point shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a Miami Heat season of questions largely unanswered, third-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. seemingly has found a solution. Perhaps he has a shot at a shot, after all.<\/p>\n

In closing 3 of 5 from beyond the arc in Thursday night\u2019s loss to the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, Jaquez made it seven out of nine games with multiple 3-pointers, after doing so just three times over his first 57 appearances of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust continuing to be in the gym,\u201d Jaquez said of the season-closing success, with the Heat closing out their regular-season road schedule Friday night against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena, before closing out their regular season on Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been working on since I\u2019ve been in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaquez said he did not allow his early-season struggles get in the way of his process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say the process is not linear,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be ups and there\u2019s going to be downs. But as long as you finish up, that\u2019s where you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now not solely attack mode, with a growing threat from beyond the arc, in order to create additional space.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d he said, \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been getting a lot more open looks at the three. And I just have the confidence for myself and my team.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoaches just tell me to let them fly. It\u2019s part of the game in the NBA. You got to be able to shoot them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So conversations up because attempts up because confidence up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you shoot more,\u201d he said, \u201cthere\u2019s more chances of them going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Total collapse<\/p>\n

While there has been ongoing question about individual defense, guard Tyler Herro said what has been lost amid the struggles<\/a> on that end has been typical Heat cohesion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on teams that have been very good defensively,\u201d Herro said of his seven Heat seasons. \u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m the best defender, but the unit has to be connected and we have to be on a string. Guys have to cover for each other. Guys have to have each other\u2019s backs. That\u2019s flying around, making extra efforts, doing all the little things, getting extra possessions, rebounds, and just playing harder on that end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late-season dive had the Heat No. 12 in the NBA entering Friday in defensive rating for the season, but 29th in the 30-team league in that metric over the 13 games entering Friday, amid that 3-10 run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a whole unit,\u201d Herro said, \u201cto feel connected to really have a good defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, instead, it has had the Heat at a loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had way more months of good habits than what we\u2019ve seen the last three weeks,\u201d coach Erik Spoelstra said. \u201cBut these three weeks of really poor defensive games are overwhelming the rest of what we\u2019ve done the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury report<\/p>\n

In addition to Nikola Jovic (ankle) and Dru Smith (foot) being ruled out ahead of Friday night\u2019s game in Washington, there also was acknowledgement of ongoing lingering issues.<\/p>\n

That had Herro (foot), Norman Powell (groin) and Davion Mitchell (shoulder) also on the injury report for Friday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Woe, Canada<\/p>\n

With Thursday night\u2019s loss, the Heat closed a season 0-4 against the Raptors for the first time since 2018-19, which also is the Heat\u2019s most-recent lottery season . . .<\/p>\n

The Heat at Sunday\u2019s season finale will recognize schools from its \u201cHow Low Can You Go?\u201d green initiative. Top-performing schools included J.P. Taravella High (Broward) for first place in energy reduction, Cypress Elementary (Broward) and International Studies Preparatory Academy (Miami-Dade) for second and third, Driftwood Middle School (Broward) for greatest water savings, Ernest R. Graham K-8 Academy (Miami-Dade) for the greatest combined energy and cost savings, and the School District of Palm Beach County for the largest overall energy reduction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a Miami Heat season of questions largely unanswered, third-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. seemingly has found a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,165,189,6,687,471,3967,66,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-707552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-portland","14":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","15":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116381602553955672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}