‘A different approach’ for Heat’s Nikola Jovic has led to resurgence after slow start to season
.jpg "Nikola Jovic #5 of the Miami Heat drives against Onyeka Okongwu #17 of the Atlanta Hawks during the first quarter at State Farm Arena on December 26, 2025 in Atlanta.")
After a rough start to his fourth NBA season, the last thing Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic wanted to do was miss time with an injury. But maybe that time missed turned out to be the reset that Jovic needed.
Since returning from a right elbow contusion/laceration that forced him to miss four straight games, Jovic has looked like the player the Heat expected him to be this season when the organization signed him to a four-year, $62.4 million extension in October.
Jovic, who had fallen out of the Heat’s rotation due to his poor start to the season before being sidelined with his elbow issue, has averaged 17 points, six rebounds and 14 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game over the last three games since returning from injury. He has scored double-digit points in each of those three games after recording double-digit points just once in the previous 20 games.
“For sure, yes,” Jovic, 22, said when asked if his four-game injury absence served as a mental reset for him. “I would give credit to my family, who came here, too, and kind of helped me get back on track. When you have people who love you around you, it for sure helps.
“But for me, it was to stop looking at basketball as a hobby and something that I love and look at it more as a job, as a profession because that’s who I am now. So, I come in every day with a different approach now, and I guess it has to stay that way.”
Jovic’s Heat teammates have noticed the recent shift in his approach.
“He’s more, I don’t want to say this in a bad way, but he’s more serious in terms of being locked in on what he needs to do, his job every single night,” Heat guard Norman Powell said, with the team taking its three-game winning streak to Detroit for a matchup against the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons on Thursday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “Making sure that he’s limiting his mistakes. And even if he does have mistakes, getting over it really quickly and not letting it linger and not letting it compound into two, three, four mistakes. You make a mistake, adjust and continue to attack the game. And I think he’s done a great job since being back.”
Heat captain and three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo added on Jovic: “We have our patches where we’re trying to figure it out, and it just feels like it’s not going well for us. Sometimes you have to change your point of view so you can get realigned. He’s realigned, obviously. He’s playing well, and we want him to keep playing like that.”
The Heat needs Jovic to keep playing like this, and not only because it invested a four-year extension in him this past offseason. Heat coaches and players believe the team is at its best when Jovic is using his relatively unique combination of size and skill at 6-foot-10 and 205 pounds to produce positive minutes.
“We’re a totally different team when he’s aggressive, when he’s assertive on the offensive end and assertive on the defensive end as well,” Powell said. “His versatility, I’m always on him like, ‘You’re 6-10, play like you’re 6-10.’ And when he does that and he doesn’t hesitate, he’s a totally different basketball player and we need that from him. We need that aggressiveness because his skill set is so unique. Being able to handle the ball, push the pace, get down into the paint, find guys, shoot the three. He’s just so versatile, and even on the defensive end. His height, his length, being able to be disruptive. ... We’re a totally different team when he’s locked in and aggressive.”
For now, Jovic is playing off the Heat’s bench. When Jovic has been on the court during this encouraging stretch, the Heat has outscored opponents by an eye-opening 42 points per 100 possessions in the 72 minutes he has played over the last three games since returning from injury.
Jovic also thrived in a reserve role last season after falling out of the Heat’s rotation. After receiving six straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in late November and early December last season, he logged double-digit minutes and made a positive impact in his final 32 appearances of the regular season — 30 of those appearances coming off the bench.
“I’m not expecting myself to go out and score 20 every night,” said Jovic, whose only start this season came in the regular-season opener. “I’m a plug guy now, you know. I come off the bench trying to help this team win, and that’s what I’m trying to do. The ball is coming to me, the energy is finding me, and I’m getting open shots. So it’s up to me to make them, and that’s about it.”
But Jovic wasn’t making a lot of shots prior to his injury.
Before this three-game stretch, Jovic was averaging just 7.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 39% from the field and 28.3% from three-point range in his first 19 appearances of the season.
“It’s just been an uneven start to this season for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter, we’re here,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Jovic’s recent uptick in production. “And we know how important he can be and how different we can look when he’s playing that style of basketball. ... I want him being aggressive, particularly in transition. That gets us out to a different place.”
The Heat wants Jovic to move past his early-season struggles and build on the momentum he’s created in recent days.
“I’ve always joked with him, like, ‘Leave that other Niko in the past. Pre-injury Niko, we don’t want that. We want this Niko now,’” Powell said with a laugh. “So, I’m really glad that he’s turned the corner. It’s a long season. There’s going to be ebbs and flows, but you got a coaching staff, you got a team that really believes in what he can bring to the table and the potential that he has as a player. But it’s all on him. He has to put the work in, he has to be committed. He has to be locked in and focused. And when he does that, the sky is the limit for that kid.”
Jovic knows it’s up to him to prove he deserves to remain in the Heat’s rotation moving forward.
“It’s up to me to show up every day and show that I’m worth it,” Jovic said. “You know how it is with the Heat. You’ve got to show them every night that you can play, because if you mess up two nights in a row, you’re probably not going to go back into the game. So, yeah, it’s up to me from now on to show these people that I should be continuing to play.”
