NBA side Miami Heats have been dealt a huge blow after star forward Nikola Jovic was ruled out of action for four weeks due to a hand injury.
The Serbian suffered a broken bone in his right hand, breaking the second metacarpal in his hand during Sunday’s game at Milwaukee.
He subsequently missed the game against Atlanta on Monday.
Jovic’s injury is a blow to Miami Heat’s hopes of securing a guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
He is expected to miss a total of 15 games in the run-in, the earliest possible return is the clash against Golden State Warriors on March 25.
Miami Heats coach, Erik Spoelstra was disappointed to lose Jovic to injury because of his importance to the team.
He said: “I feel for Niko,” Spoelstra continued. “I know how much he has put into this. He’s had a couple injuries previously. This has nothing to do with it. He’s not snake bitten or anything like that.
“He actually was playing with some force tonight. I thought he got hit on the leg, he kept on holding his leg. And I was shocked by the prognosis. But in the meantime other guys will have to step up.”
Jovic is confident his teammates will step up in his absence to help the team.
He said: “I’ve been through some tough injuries before. My mom always says, ‘Some things just happen for a reason.’ Who knows why this happened. Yeah, I’ll figure it out. This team needs everybody right now. Other guys will step up and show what they can do with playing time. So I’m not worried at all about the team, they will for sure do good.”
Jovic is averaging 10.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game this season.
He is averaging career-highs in points (10.7 per game), assists (2.8) and minutes (25.1) this season.
He also has brought size to the Heat’s rotation at 6-foot-10 while shooting 37.1 percent on 4.6 three-point attempts per game this season to help space the floor for Miami’s offense.
Despite going off in the first period of the clash against Milwaukee Bucks, he still managed to hit double digits, the 31st straight game where he logged such numbers.
