Winderman’s view: And now down goes Jaquez in loss, another blow for Heat

Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night’s 119-110  loss to the Indiana Pacers:

– When will the Heat be whole?

– Or, perhaps more to the point, will they be whole?

– On a night there was thought the Heat would be getting Jimmy Butler back, they instead lost Jaime Jaquez for the night — and possibly longer — in the third quarter with a sprained right ankle.

– That was with Butler already out for a third consecutive game with a sprained right ankle of his own.

– Butler is expected back Monday night against the visiting 76ers.

– Who already have had their share of injury issues this season.

– Which means little in the way of sympathy for the Heat.

– But from Kevin Love and Josh Richardson missing the start of the season.

– To Jaquez experiencing Montezuma’s revenge.

– To Butler’s ankle.

– And now Jaquez’s ankle … cohesion has been an abstract.

– As it was last season.

– With arguably less margin for error this time around.

– Butler back will assuredly help.

– But Jaquez as sixth man has been an essential element.

– So, again, we wait.

– As Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo continually deal with the heaviest lifting.

– With Butler (ankle) still out, the Heat opened for a fourth consecutive game with a lineup of Adebayo, Herro, Love, Haywood Highsmith and Terry Rozier.

– Jaquez and Nikola Jovic entered first off the Heat bench.

– Duncan Robinson and Richardson then followed together.

– And that was it for the primary rotation, at nine deep.

– No Kel’el Ware in the initial mix this time.

– And no Pelle Larsson.

– As Alec Burks remains out of the mix.

– Herro extended his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 51, two games off the longest such streak of his career.

– Herro also now has converted multiple 3-pointers in every game this season.

– Herro extended his streak of scoring in double figures to 42 dating to last season. His previous longest such streak had been 38 games in 2021-22.

– The game concluded the first of three times the Heat will play the same opponent in consecutive games this season, with the Heat having won Friday on the Pacers’ court.

–  The other two instances will be split between one game on the road and one game at home (vs. Toronto on Nov. 29 and at Toronto on Dec. 1; and at Atlanta on Feb. 24 and vs. Atlanta on Feb. 26).

– Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said pregame he expected increased urgency from the Pacers after what transpired Friday.

– “It’s always tough to win two in a segment like this,” he said, “and that’s our challenge right now. And we’re looking forward to it. And it’ll be good, spirited competition. And we’re going to have to play well.”

– Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said the Friday game video was a tough watch. “It’s just worse watching it the second time,” he said of Saturday’s video session. “It was bad. Generally things that are bad look worse on film. It was like that.”

– In Friday’s game, Carlisle wound up pulling all five starters in the third period.

– “It’s embarrassing for everybody, not just the guys that are getting pulled,” he reflected on that moment. “It’s embarrassing for the coaching staff, the entire team. And, so, it’s not good, it’s not good. But it was something that had to be done.”

– Carlisle, who is president of the coaches’ association, offered effusive praise when asked pregame about Spoelstra.

– “When it’s all said and done, he’ll be one of the greatest coaches in the history of our game,” he said. “If he continues to do this –I know he signed the long contract – at his age he’s going to have many, many, many more years. And so he’ll be way up there in all-time wins. I certainly expect there’s a great chance he’ll win more championships and it appears likely that he’ll be the Olympic coach, or there’s certainly been talk about it; he was on the staff last year.”

– Carlisle added, “He’s had an amazing career, and, really, he’s just in the middle of it. His teams are always highly disciplined. They don’t beat themselves. They always play hard and they always play unselfishly. That’s one of the reasons they’ve been able to establish such consistency.”