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Jaquez (hip) latest Heat player sidelined; Butler, Rozier also out for Game 5, as is Celtics' Porzingis

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on

Published in Basketball

BOSTON — The Miami Heat now will need a next man up for their next man up amid their injury-riddled ride through the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

Moved into the starting lineup in the wake of injuries to teammates Terry Rozier and Jimmy Butler, first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. on Tuesday was ruled out by the team for Wednesday night’s Game 5 against the Boston Celtics in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference opening-round series.

Sidelined from the fourth quarter of Monday night’s 102-88 loss to the Celtics at Kaseya Center that put the Heat into a 3-1 hole in the matchup and facing elimination, Jaquez was diagnosed with a right hip flexor strain.

A spark throughout the season, last June’s No. 18 pick out of UCLA was limited to 22:10 in Monday night’s loss, closing with nine points on 4-of-10 shooting, with two rebounds and two assists.

While coach Erik Spoelstra initially classified it as a leg injury, Jaquez clarified before the Heat turned their attention to Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. Game 5 at TD Garden.

“I just felt something, felt something give in the hip, and we’ll take it day by day as of now,” Jaquez said. “It was really just my hip, my right hip. I felt something give in the beginning in the third quarter going up for a rebound. I tried to get back in there, tried to give it everything I had.”

 

Jaquez said it is a new injury.

“This is something definitely a little new,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve had an injury up here before, hurt up there. But like I said, day by day.”

With the awareness that the Heat season now stands as nothing other than day by day.

“This is when guys come together and get tighter as a group,” Jaquez said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”

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