The Miami Heat continue to seek ways to get their season back to its original trajectory. Jaime Jaquez Jr. believes words aren't enough and that the team needs to "do more" to achieve future goals.
The Miami Heat's season has been atrocious lately, after snapping a five-game losing streak, currently riding a three-game losing streak ahead of tonight's game against a divisional rival in the Atlanta Hawks. There's a great level of frustration within the locker room, especially given the lack of execution.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. alluded to the team needing to "do more" to get out of this recent funk after the loss to the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, Dec. 23rd, with a final score of 112-91.
"It's one thing when you have one bad game," the third-year forward said. "When it's a lot of struggles, things not going our way, we've got to dig deep and find a way to win. If you only win when you make your shots, you're only going to win half the games. We want to be better than that. We want to be a great team, but we've just got to dig deeper and bring more every single night."
The 24-year-old finished that matchup with 21 points, two rebounds, two assists, and a block in 36 minutes while leading the team in scoring. However, it isn't great when sharing the full context of the other individual's performances.
Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell combined for 26 points, making 10 field goals out of 28 attempts, 35.7 percent, and one of eight shots from behind the arc, 12.5 percent. It's a difficult struggle to overcome when both stars are struggling offensively.
However, at this point, words don't matter, but rather the effort and results on the court.
"We've said what we needed to say," Jaquez Jr. added. "We just got to go out there and do it. I know we're very capable. We got a great locker room; it's just collectively, we all got to come together and lift each other up. Right now, it's a struggle, we're going to get through this, and we just got to do more."
Ahead of tonight's Hawks game, Nikola Jovic and Pelle Larsson, who've missed recent time due to injuries, are listed as probable. That's an extremely encouraging sign, but if they fail to bounce back even with returning reinforcements, only time will tell when things could slightly get better.
All-Star guard Tyler Herro continues to be sidelined after reaggravating a right big toe injury. The 25-year-old has only appeared in six games this season and averaged 23.2 points, five rebounds, 2.3 assists, and a steal while shooting 50.5 percent from the field, 40.5 percent from three-point range.
It's also worth noting that Adebayo is listed as questionable due to lower back soreness.
Despite what some fans may think, the Heat's recent struggles shouldn't fall on someone who's barely been available. The Hawks have had their own issues this season, especially with Kristaps Porzingis missing time with either injuries or illness, plus uncertainty with All-Star guard Trae Young's future.
It's the perfect opportunity to get back in the winning column; otherwise, red alarms will continue to sound off.
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