Miami Heat lose another core player to injury in win over Hornets

The Miami Heat will be without one of their most consistent players for Monday night’s game against Brooklyn Nets, and perhaps longer.

After suffering a groin strain in Sunday’s win over the Charlotte Hornets, rookie forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. did not travel with the Heat for their game in Brooklyn Monday night and his status for Wednesday’s game in Toronto is in question. 

Jaquez played 15 minutes in the first half but was ruled out for the rest of the game with a groin injury he said he sustained when going up for a dunk in transition in the first quarter.

“It just didn’t feel that well when I took off,” Jaquez said. “It slowly started to get worse throughout the duration of the game.”

Miami Heat standout rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. will miss Monday's game in Brooklyn and is considered day-to-day with a left groin strain.

Jaquez scored 15 of Miami’s first 22 points of the game, helping set the stage for a blowout win. He went 7 for 11 from the field and had five rebounds, two assists and a steal before leaving the game.

The 18th pick in June’s draft, Jaquez is the only player who has played in each of Miami’s first 39 games this season, but that streak will come to end Monday night. He is ruled out for Monday night’s game and will be considered day-to-day after that.

Jaquez also strained his left groin in the preseason and had to miss two weeks before the start of the regular season, but he doesn’t believe this injury to be as severe as the first one.

“He says and our trainers say that it’s not as severe as the one had previously earlier in the season,” Spoelstra said. “So we’ll see.”

The Heat expect to get Jimmy Butler back from a right toe injury for Monday night. Butler has missed Miami’s last eight games, and Jaquez has started in his place.