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It turns out that even with a revised roster, the game is the same for Nikola Jovic. He might play; he might not. After dwindling minutes over the Heat’s first three games, there were none for the 2022 first-round pick out of Serbia in the fourth game, Monday night’s home loss to the Dallas Mavericks. That again had him heading into the great unknown as the Heat turned their attention to Wednesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. “I mean, I’ve been going through similar stuff before so I can’t say I kind of didn’t expect it,” Jovic said after Wednesday morning’s shooaround. “The more you get used to that stuff, the easier it gets.”
In the opener, there were 24 minutes in the home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the second game, there were 13 in the home loss to the Detroit Pistons. The following night, only six minutes in the road loss to the Charlotte Hornets. And then none Monday against the Mavericks, when his minutes instead went to point guard Dru Smith. “I’m still trying to find that spot for Niko,” coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday morning.” So this is different than last year, because he’s been giving us good minutes. But we felt that we needed a little bit more perimeter based with Dru, to be able to set everybody else in their normal positions. “But I did extend our frontcourt big minutes the other night, so Niko is still fully in the mix. I just have to figure it out.”
For Jovic, 23, the messaging has remained consistent. “Just stay ready,” he said. “They told me that they were going to try and play someone else in my minutes. So, simple.”
What did Jovic learn from his struggles last season? “Just a little bit of everything,” said Jovic, who played well for the Serbian national team during European World Cup qualifying this past summer. “How things look when they’re not going your way. How to not act. How to act. A lot of different stuff, little stuff like that. More on the mental game part, too. I think that’s really important where I felt like everybody was against me and stuff. I was thinking the wrong way last year. I had to grow up a little bit and learn how to be a man and how to take actions for myself. Just stuff like that.”
“I felt like I just had to get my shot right again,” Jovic said, with the Heat in the middle of some practice time before playing its fourth of five preseason games on Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., WPLG Local 10). “Not that it went away or something like that. My shooting numbers during practices and everything were good. It just wasn’t looking great in the games. Just making sure I’m back at shooting over 36%, 37%, which I’m kind of always used to. “I was never worried about it because I knew how good of a shooter I am. And during the summer, that’s probably one of the things I’m most worked on and it for sure helped. I’m sure it’ll be good this year.”
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NBA Trade Machine: 4.6% of trades built on HoopsMatic over the past 24 hours involved Nikola Jovic. Of his trades, the most common landing spots were Detroit (15.8%), Dallas (10.5%), and Brooklyn (7.9%), while the most common return players were Ron Holland (10.5%), Patrick Williams (3.9%), and Caleb Martin (3.9%).
Heat Central: Nikola Jovic on Giannis passing ability: “He can pass the sh*t out of the ball. It’s insane. Sometimes he’ll pass it in the right spot but you’re not there and it’s like ‘ahh f*ck, I gotta get to the right spot.’ You have this superstar that two guys have to guard Everytime and he still finds you right away in the perfect spot. We played pickup yesterday and Pelle had 6 wide open dunks. It’s insane how good his court vision is.”
The game was also attended by Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who came to watch two Heat players face off against each other. For Serbia, Heat forward Nikola Jovic finished with five points in 11 minutes before fouling out. For Italy, fellow Heat forward Simone Fontecchio scored 15 points, knocking down three of his eight attempts from beyond the arc. Serbia’s biggest star, Nikola Jokic, also had a relatively quiet game by his standards, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds in the win.
Ira Winderman: Heat forward Nikola Jovic closed with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting (2 of 6 on 3-pointers) to lead Serbia to a 102-73 victory over Iceland in Belgrade in World Cup qualifying. Jovic added three rebounds and two assists in 23:26. Serbia concludes the two-game qualifying window Monday at Italy.
NBA Trade Machine: Kyrie Irving was involved in 3.6% of all trades built on HoopsMatic over the past 24 hours. Of those, his top destinations were Miami (24.1%), Boston (14.8%), and Orlando (13.0%). Players traded for him most often: Davion Mitchell (16.7%), Dru Smith (16.7%), and Nikola Jovic (14.8%).
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Barry Jackson: Jovic still has some support among important Heat people;Miami preferred to sign Klay through a buyout, anyway. Jovic basically is earning mid-level money next 4 years;perhaps he can be maximized playing with Giannis. His drop in 3 point % (from 39.9 & 37.1) to 26.9 was puzzling
The third quarter, however, belonged entirely to the Joker. Responding with MVP-caliber brilliance, Jokic spearheaded a furious Serbian comeback by dominating the paint, finishing with a dominant 34 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists to snatch the lead early in the fourth quarter. Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic ended up with 13 points to aid the comeback.
The highly anticipated encounter between Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama concluded tonight at the Belgrade Arena. Serbia managed to beat France in front of 20,000 fans in attendance, 90-87 (22-19, 24-26, 26-17, 18-25). Nikola Jokic was the star of the night, finishing close to a triple-double. Jokic scored 20 points (4/10 2PT, 1/3 3PT, 9/12 FT), grabbed 9 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists in 29 minutes. Nikola Jovic was also in double digits, as the Miami Heat forward scored 10 points and collected 4 rebounds. Victor Wembanyama struggled, finishing with 10 points (2/2 2PT, 1/6 3PT, 3/4 FT), 4 rebounds, and 6 turnovers in 24 minutes on the court.
Norman Powell: They could’ve made moves and done things if they wanted to. Obviously, Wiggs [Andrew Wiggins] would have had to opt out [of his player option] and take less than his $30 [million] and they would have had to move Niko [Nikola Jović]. But teams are going to do what they want. They didn’t make the moves necessary to do so. So it’s about being ahead of the game and seeing how things play out. Khalid and Glu were really on top of giving me the outline of what free agency would look like, who’s available and who’s interested. As the news was coming out with different guys’ contracts and trades, they kept me really informed on what was going to be next, who was on the board and off the board. It wasn’t as cut and dry.”
