Apr 7, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) dribbles the basketball against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Former UCLA Bruin and current Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. received the lowest amount of playing time that he has seen in a game, all season, playing just one minute in Miami’s 109-90 win over the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
This puzzling move comes one game after Jaquez dropped a career-high 41 points with 10 rebounds and seven assists in the regular season finale, last Sunday. It would be assumed that his playing time and impact would rise, seeking to ride Jaquez’s hot hand. That would definitely not be the case.
With the game handedly in the Heat’s control, head coach Erik Spoelstra put Jaquez in for the final 60 seconds of the contest, scoring zero points on just one shot attempt in garbage time. After the game, many fans took to social media, asking why Jaquez barely played in the win-or-go-home situation.
what happened to jaime jaquez?
— tj 🈂️ (@bigdawggtjj) April 17, 2025
Jaime Jaquez better get some blowout run
— DFS McNick (@dfsMCNiiCK) April 17, 2025
What the hell happened to me Jaime Jaquez
— Dreco⚡️ (@kamptherapy) April 16, 2025
In 66 games this season, Jaquez is averaging 8.6 points on 46.1% shooting with 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest. There is no reason now to play Jaquez in a game like this unless the defensive matchups were not in his favor.
Jaquez also holds an average plus/minus rating of 2.3 this year, meaning that the Heat have been outscored by an average of 2.3 points when he is on the floor. That is just one hypothesis as to why Jaquez did not see the floor at all.
Two other former Bruins join Jaquez on the heat as all three players failed to record a single point in the win. 10th-year guard Kyle Anderson played ample time, receiving 23 minutes and scoring zero points while veteran power forward Kevin Love did not enter the game at all.
The biggest question is raised with how uninvolved Jaquez was. The game was relatively competitive for a majority of the game, assuming that, due to his recent success, he would play at least a few minutes.
In his rookie year with Miami last season, Jaquez averaged 30.1 minutes in four playoff games against the eventual NBA champions, the Boston Celtics. The fact that his playoff has seemingly changed drastically in just one year is quite perplexing.
It will be interesting to see what type of run he receives in Friday’s second play-in tournament contest. Jaquez and the Heat will need to beat the Atlanta Hawks to earn the eighth and final playoff spot.
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