Heat forced to rely on second-year forward with Jimmy Butler out

Second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. hit a huge three-pointer with a minute left in the Heat's comeback win over the Utah Jazz Thursday night. He also grabbed two crucial offensive rebounds in the final minutes, delivered an assist and made three free throws as Miami won 97-92.

Jaquez finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, along with two steals. It was Jaquez's third straight game as a potent offensive weapon after he scored 18 points in a win over the Golden State Warriors Tuesday and put up a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a double-OT loss to the Sacramento Kings Monday.

It's the kind of balanced performance that the Heat were getting from Butler, also a do-everything player whose shooting can be inconsistent. After a brutal shooting month in December where Jaquez made 40.6 percent of his shots and only 16.7 percent of his three-pointers, he's bounced back, already matching his three-point total for the previous month in the first nine days of January. But Jaquez is valuable even when his shot isn't falling.

"Jaime is a unique player because he can impact the game in a lot of different ways," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters at a news conference last week. "When he's doing a lot of different things — deflections, steals, rotating at the right time, transition buckets — that's when he's at his best."

Jaquez is rising to the challenge of joining the Heat's starting lineup, asserting himself more offensively while continuing to get deflections and make hustle plays. The X factor is his three-point shooting. If Jaquez can get his three-point rate over last season's 31.1 percent, it would create much more spacing for a Miami offense that's limited by teams packing the paint and Terry Rozier's 29 percent shooting from deep.

Miami may not be able to replace Butler before the deadline, and there's no telling how committed he'll be to the team when he returns. But until the Heat can reload, they need Jaquez to keep expanding his game.