UCLA Basketball: 2 Former Bruins Stars Power NBA Squad To The Playoffs
Can they keep it going?
A pair of former UCLA Bruins Pac-10/Pac-12 Players of the Year, veteran power forward/center Kevin Love and rookie small forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., helped propel their Miami Heat (without two starters in point guard Terry Rozier or All-NBA small forward Jimmy Butler) to a laughably easy 112-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls in their play-in tournament game Friday to qualify for the Eastern Conference's No. 8 seed.
Jaquez had 21 points (second-most on the team to Tyler Herro) on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor (1-of-3 from deep) and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and six assists. The 6'7" swingman helped lead the Heat to a 19-0 run in the opening quarter of the game, and essentially never looked back. During a conversation with NBA TV, Jaquez unpacked his big night, starting with a dissection of that early run.
"I would just say it goes back to our game plan from the start," Jaquez reflected on the Heat's early aggression. "Even this morning at shootaround, we talked about setting the tone extremely early in the game, something that we have been lacking. So when we got our opportunity to go out there, we wanted to make sure our presence was felt and set a tone for the entirety of the game."
"Offensively [setting the tone] meant run our offense with pace, get guys moving, swing the ball, get it popping," Jaquez said. "And then as far as [defense], [it meant] crowd that paint, get guys like DeMar [DeRozan] and Coby [White], try to slow them down as best we can. When you set a tone like that, everyone gets into it, the energy's there, and as a collective I thought we performed terrifically."
The 6'8" Love, meanwhile, led all bench scorers (on either team) with 16 points on mostly foul shooting (he went 10-of-10 from the charity stripe) plus 2-of-6 shooting from the floor (2-of-3 from deep). He also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out one dime.
Jaquez and Love will hope to keep up the good vibes on Sunday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, when their first round matchup against the top-seeded Boston Celtics tips off. They'll most likely be without Butler for most or all of the series, as he recuperates from a serious MCL injury.
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