Miami Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. suffered a scary looking injury on Friday afternoon during the team’s final seeding game in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble against the Indiana Pacers. Jones, during the third quarter of action, was chasing Pacers forward Doug McDermott off of a screen set by rookie big man Goga Bitadze.
Jones collided with Bitadze, with his shoulder appearing to crash into the big man’s frame. He immediately went down, laid on his stomach, and held onto the back of his neck for several minutes while in visible discomfort.
Derrick Jones Jr has been down for several minutes and holding his neck after taking hard screen by Goga Bitadze pic.twitter.com/4pSTTVaaQq
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 14, 2020
It didn’t look like Bitadze did anything dirty, nor did it look like Jones was being overly physical. But the collision left Jones in some apparent pain, and eventually, a stretcher was brought out and the reining dunk contest champion was brought to the back.
Heat‘s Derrick Jones Jr being put on a stretcher here at the Miami-Indiana game. Hit the court hard and was holding his neck after. Has been down for several minutes. pic.twitter.com/nRoXVYLJHN
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) August 14, 2020
Prior to his going down with the injury, Jones played 16 minutes and registered three points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals for the Heat, which are locked into the four seed and will play Indiana in the first round of the postseason. Hopefully Jones will end up being ok, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as more information comes in about his status going forward.