Despite Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s career afternoon, the Miami Heat squandered an opportunity late against the lowly Washington Wizards, losing 119-118 in what is a fitting loss to a forgettable season.
Miami led by four points with less than six seconds left. But Justin Champagnie’s 3-pointer followed by Josh Christopher’s over-and-back on the ensuing SLOB gave Washington the ball back with 4.4 seconds left.
Then, rookie Bub Carrington had the shot of his life as time expired:
Sunday’s loss drops the Heat to 37-45, their worst record since the 2014-15 season, when it was also 37-45. They also will have the 11th-best lottery odds, at worse, heading into Wednesday’s play-in game against the Chicago Bulls.
The Heat have lost an NBA-most 17 games by five points or fewer this season, including tying the Minnesota Timberwolves for a league-leading 11th loss by one possession.
Jaquez was outstanding the entire afternoon, looking as spry as he did during his rookie season. He finished with a career-high 41 points on 17-of-25 shooting with 10 rebounds and seven assists in 41 minutes.
Miami was without Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro (rest), in addition to Andrew Wiggins, Alec Burks and Pelle Larsson.
The Heat rotation went nine-deep, though Davion Mitchell, Kel’el Ware and Duncan Robinson all played 19:34. Ware had 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting; Mitchell had four points with four rebounds and eight assists; Robinson had just six points on 2-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
Washington shot 51.1 percent from the floor–to the Heat’s 50.0 percent. Though the Wizards outscored the Heat by 18 from 3-point range despite finishing near even from the free-throw line (plus-one) and on the glass (minus-three).
Six of the Wizards’ seven players who saw the hardwood finished in double figures, led by Tristan Vukcevic (28 PTS, 11 REB) and Champagnie (27 PTS), formerly in the Heat system.
Now, onto the play-in. What are your expectations ahead of Wednesday’s game?
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JJJ! Good to see him get a game like that. Even vs these tankers. Play-in next lets go Bulls! Lol
**** off honestly done with this regular season get me tf out post-season and onwards we go
JJJ showed his high potential, very impressive.
I get exhausted telling people not to give up on him so soon.
If he continues working on his threes and cuts down on his turnovers, he can still be a very viable rotation player for Miami or another team via trade as part of a larger package.
That’s exactly how I feel.
Add on this list his defense. He doesnt seems bad visually, but I think this is the main reason why he is not playing.
Josh Christopher lost us that game, but it’s ok cuz that was his first nba game with extended minutes. Maybe we will get a better draft pick cuz that lost. It’s a shame that they wasted a Jaquez 40 pt game .
See my post on the game thread. The loss makes no difference. Still slated for the #11 pick.