Jovic returns from injury, takes blame for Heat’s Game 2 loss: ‘I really did cost us the game’
After the Miami Heat held practice Tuesday in Cleveland, forward Nikola Jovic admitted he didn’t expect to play much in Game 2 of the Heat’s first-round playoff series.
“Even if I come in, I don’t think it will be a long time that I’ll stay in the game,” said Jovic, who had yet to play any meaningful minutes since breaking his right hand in late February.
Well, it turns out the Heat relied on Jovic to play the entire fourth quarter of Wednesday’s 121-112 Game 2 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena. It marked his first real playing time in two months.
Jovic, 21, finished the defeat with 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, 1-of-8 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds, two assists and two turnovers in 25 minutes off the Heat’s bench while wearing black tape around his right hand.
Jovic recorded four points, five rebounds and one assist while playing the entire fourth quarter, helping spark a Heat rally that cut a 13-point deficit at the start of the final period to just a two-point deficit multiple times in the final minutes. But the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Cavaliers eventually took control to hold on for the win and take a 2-0 lead over the East’s eighth-seeded Heat in the best-of-7 series.
“Niko gave us a real good boost,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Offensively, we just look different when he’s on the floor. He creates some stress with his skill and I’m pleased that he was able to play those 25 minutes. It’s a credit to him putting in all that time conditioning the last month or so.”
Even Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson noticed the impact Jovic made in Wednesday’s fourth quarter, pointing out the two offensive rebounds and three defensive rebounds that the 6-foot-10 Jovic grabbed in the final period.
“Jovic gave them a huge boost,” Atkinson said, with the playoff series now moving to Miami for Games 3 (Saturday at 1 p.m. at Kaseya Center) and 4 (Monday with time TBD). “He’s big, he gave them another big wing. He came in rebounding and making plays.”
But Jovic was hard on himself after Game 2, blaming himself for the loss because of mistakes he made down the stretch. He missed all four of his three-point attempts in the fourth quarter, including two airballs, and committed two costly turnovers in the final 2:43 of the game.
“I got what I wanted and that’s to close the game in the playoffs,” said Jovic, who averaged career highs in points (10.7 per game), assists (2.8) and minutes (25.1) this regular season in his third NBA season. “The stuff that I did at the end is really unacceptable. I really did cost us the game and I just got to be better. This is my third year. I’m not a rookie anymore. I’ve seen what’s the deal and how to get to the playoffs, and the stuff that I did today was just not good.
“I’m really grateful that coach gave me the opportunity. I’m not worried about my shot. I know if I have those shots again, I will shoot them every time because I know I’m open and I know I can make them. They just didn’t go in and I got to be better.”
The rust was understandable, as Wednesday represented Jovic’s first meaningful and extended playing time since he fractured his right hand on Feb. 23. He returned to game action for the first time since the injury when he played the final 1:23 of Sunday’s Game 1 loss in Cleveland, but that came at the end of a lopsided defeat.
“No, I just think I wasn’t smart enough,” Jovic said when asked whether fatigue was a factor for him late in Wednesday’s contest. “I got to be better. It’s not the regular season. If we took this one, it’s 1-1, we are headed back home and we’re feeling great.”
Despite some shaky moments from Jovic in Game 2, Jovic’s Heat teammates already see how he can help them in this playoff series with his combination of size, playmaking and three-point shooting.
“It’s just a different threat, different look,” Heat guard Davion Mitchell said of what Jovic adds. “A taller guy who can put the ball on the ground, who can make really good decisions, who can shoot the ball. He can do everything for us. He’s going to be a key part to this series. They got to guard him, you know what I’m saying. And they got to put a good defender on him. He just makes the right play every time, he puts people in rotations and he’s going to be good for us during the series.”
Heat center Bam Adebayo said of Jovic: “He just adds that dynamic as a big, being that he can also space the floor but also run the point, get guys into triggers. And, obviously, he can knock down a couple shots.”
With the Heat using Jovic to close Wednesday’s game, starter Andrew Wiggins did not play in the fourth quarter. Instead, the Heat went with a lineup of Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Jovic and Adebayo to finish Game 2.
“We had taken it all the way to [a two-point deficit], I thought about it,” Spoelstra said when asked why he didn’t play Wiggins in the fourth quarter on Wednesday. “I actually put him at the scorer’s table at six minutes to go and the group wanted to keep on pushing through. We stayed with it. But, obviously, he’ll be very important for the rest of the series.”
It seems like Jovic could also be important for the rest of the series, too, however long it goes. Jovic was far from perfect on Wednesday, but he did enough in the fourth quarter of Game 2 to show how his skill set can help the Heat against the Cavaliers.
“He’s been just a big-time boost for us off the bench all year long and he’s a dynamic player,” Spoelstra said of Jovic. “So we just look different when he’s on the court. He makes quick decisions, he’s got great skill level, he’s got size. I’m just pleased that he was able to play these 25 minutes in a playoff setting, which is probably like 45 minutes in the regular season. He’s been grinding the conditioning to prepare for this.”
