If you were to power rank the players most likely to score 50 points in a game on any given night, I’m not sure anyone would have Bam Adebayo on their big board. And that is no way a slight against him as a player.
A 3x All-Star who was an All-NBA defensive first team in 2024, and made the 2nd All-NBA defensive team on 4 other occasions, Adebayo is someone that every team across the league would love to add to their roster. It’s just that “Adebayo” and “scorer” rarely appear in the same sentence when describing the NBA’s premier bucket getters.
Across his 9 year NBA career, the 28 year old has averaged 20 or more points exactly one time (20.4 back in 2022-23). His contributions have mostly come on the defensive side of the floor, averaging better than a steal per game, and 8.9 rebounds per contest for the better part of the last decade.
The former first rounder can be viewed as a Swiss Army knife. He’s versatile, can guard the opposing team’s best player, grab you some timely boards, and isn’t a black hole offensively either. In short, he’s a plug and play player in any starting lineup across the Association on any given night.
With all that being said, seeing Adebayo pour in 83 points vs. the hapless Wizards on Tuesday night was akin to seeing your pet stand up on two feet and start talking to you. Simply put, it wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card, including his Heat teammates.
“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game. “Obviously, we’ve been blessed to have been part of a lot of big moments in this arena. This one, it just happened. Moments happen, and I’m grateful that we’re all able to be a part of it and witness it.”
When all was said and done Bam went 20-43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the free throw line, 7 of 22 from beyond the arc and added in 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks for good measure. Final score, Miami 150, Washington 129.
“For me, it was just remaining calm, remaining locked in and understanding that I can go for something special,” Adebayo said. “I didn’t think it was going to be 83. But to have this moment is surreal, because like I said, man, to be able to do it at home, in front of my mom, in front of my people, in front of the home fans, this is a mark in history that will forever be remembered.”
No one will make the argument that it was a particularly “good game”. The contest began with the Wizards (16-48) in a dogfight with Indiana for the worst record in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile Miami is jockeying for postseason positioning as they hope to secure home court for the first round of the playoffs. Indeed the outcome of the game seemed determined well before any thoughts of a record breaking night crossed anyone’s mind, with Miami racing out to a 40-29 lead after the 1st quarter.
Washington was always going to give up points. Only the Utah Jazz have a worse defensive rating in the NBA this season than the Wizards 121.98 mark. But something began to shift in the 3rd quarter on Tuesday. It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly the shift happened, but for those who were watching, there was a noticeable change from “Bam’s having himself a nice night” to “Bam might be the only one taking shots from now on” at some point after halftime.
Prior to Tuesday, Adebayo’s career high in a game was 41 points. The former Kentucky Wildcat had eclipsed that figure by halftime. From there it appeared as though the Heat were determined to get Bam the franchise record of 62 points to pass LeBron James’ mark of 61 which had stood since 2014.
Once that was locked in, Kobe Bryant’s mark of 81 points (2nd all-time to Wilt Chamberlain’s infamous 100 point night in 1962) became the target. Bam seemed to cool off down the stretch after a blistering start, leading to him becoming the only player to ever score 70+ points in a game while shooting below 50% from the field.
Luckily, constant trips to the free throw line helped keep the offence coming with a staggering 43 strolls to the charity stripe. With 36 of his 83 points coming from free throws, over 43% of Bam’s total points came on dead ball plays.
And that wasn’t by accident, but rather by design Miami began to intentionally foul to add possessions in the 4th quarter. A fact that seemed to irritate Wizards coach Brian Keefe as the game went on.
“You’ve got to give him credit,” Keefe said. “In the first half, he shot the ball terrific, he scored the ball really well. Obviously, he came out and had a little bit in the third too. They obviously kept him in the game, and there was a lot of fouls called — 16 free throws in the fourth quarter. I was trying to take the ball out of his hands. He still got some free throws 40 feet from the rim. I can’t explain some of those calls. That’s all I got to say on that.”
In the aftermath, some armchair pundits voiced their displeasure of Bam surpassing Kobe online as a result of the fouls, playing a tanking team, and a wide variety of other ticky-tac nitpicks. Was it pretty? No. Would it have been more impressive visually had the feat come in a back and forth barnburner between two powerhouse teams vying for a playoff spot? Sure.
But time will roll on, and people will forget the small nuances of who fouled whom, and whether Miami manufactured some extra possessions. Much like how people now seem to forget that when Bryan put up his 81 points vs. the Raptors he scored his final 7 points from the free throw line, or how he took 13 of the Lakers final 17 shots.
People remember box scores, not defensive rotations or borderline foul calls. So while purists will say that the 4th quarter seemed to have an All-Star game level of defensive effort, it’s hard to predict what people will think of Bam’s feat 5, 10 or 20 years down the line.
For now however, Adebayo has the second most points scored in a game in NBA history, and no amount of online vitriol will change that.
“Wilt, me, then Kobe,” Adebayo said. “It sounds crazy.”
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.