As head coach of the Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra has appeared on the sidelines in more than 1,600 games. But he’s never seen players like the one he coached on Tuesday.
“It was definitely a surreal night,” Spoelstra told reporters after Miami’s historic 150-129 victory over the Washington Wizards. “You know, obviously we’ve been blessed to be a part of a lot of big moments on this stage. This one… it just happened. Moments happen. I’m just grateful that we were able to be a part of it and witness it.”
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With all due respect to one of the greatest coaches in NBA history…no. Accidents will happen. S*** happens. Bam Adebayo scores 83 points in NBA game? This is not just occur.
(Illustration by Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
That’s why people often say it when they hear the unbelievable news that the Heat’s nine-year center – a great player, three-time All-Star, five-time All-Defensive team selection – has never scored. half Shortly after learning of Bam’s big night, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka shared that he had scored the most points in an NBA game and overtook Kobe Bryant as the second-highest scorer in a game in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain.
“The first thing you think about is: How?” Udoka told reporters after the Rockets’ 113-99 victory over the Raptors. “Not because of him, but because of the way he plays.”
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Makes sense. The other 70-point-per-game players — Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic, David Thompson, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker — are all within or slightly above the top 50 scorers in NBA history in terms of points per game; Adebayo ranks 221st. Bam enters the game on Tuesday averaging 18.9 points on 15.2 shots per game this season. In fact, he is only the Heat’s third-leading scorer in 2025-26, behind only guards Norman Powell (22.5 points per game) and Tyler Herro (22.1 points per game).
But neither Powell nor Herro are in the starting lineup; as is starting swingman Andrew Wiggins and second-year big man Kyle Ware. That leaves a hole in the Heat’s core in terms of shot creation and shot creation…and the Heat’s core players set out to fill that void.
While the 28-year-old has worked hard to expand his range over the past few seasons, he’s still primarily an elbow-to-the-elbow post operator, with more than 52 percent of his points coming into Tuesday’s game from inside the arc and nearly 46 percent of those coming in the paint. But Bam seemed to get the ball flying early on Tuesday, draining his first 3-pointer less than 90 seconds into the game and then three more in a span of 102 seconds midway through the game.
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Those four 3-pointers — already tied for the third-most he’s hit in a game this season — were all made off the catch, which has been the case for 84 percent of his long passes this season. When he drained a 27-foot pull-up jumper in transition — entering Tuesday, he had made all 33 career pull-up 3s — making him just the sixth player in the past 29 years to score 30 points in a quarter, it was clear he was feeling great. Very OK
He hit 7 of 22 3-pointers — career highs in both field goals made and attempted…
…and would surpass his pre-intermission high of 41 points.
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“Obviously, my teammates [were] “I was obsessed at halftime,” Adebayo told reporters after the game. “So for me, it’s just about staying calm, staying locked in and understanding that I can go do something special.
“Now, I didn’t expect it to be 83.”
Neither did his coach.
“You know, he had a monster first quarter and then he scored 43 points at halftime and we just talked about continuing to play our game,” Spoelstra said. “Whether we call a dead ball specifically for him or not, the ball is going to find him.”
Part of the reason the ball found him was that the Wizards — who entered Tuesday last in the league in defensive rating and 27th in opponent free throw percentage — simply couldn’t handle Adebayo one-on-one. Like, exactly.
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“All I saw him doing was [seven] “Three-pointers, but 40 free throws or something like that. The story is there,” Udoka said.
Udoka paused and continued:
“And the Washington Wizards.”
Time and again, Adebayo faced young big men Alex Sarr and Tristan Vukcevic, going right at them, forcing them into the paint and forcing them to foul him if they didn’t want to give up a layup. Those straight-line drives, combined with the number of times he drove to the rim on early possessions for deep seals or transformed to get smaller Wizards defenders into the post, started to add up.
By the end of the third quarter, Adebayo had drawn 15 fouls, stepped to the free throw line 27 times, made 22 field goals (both career highs), and scored 62 points on a fast-break dunk off a steal from Heat guard Drew Smith, one point better than the Heat franchise record set by LeBron James in 2014.
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“I would say once he gets to 50, we’re like, ‘Well, maybe he can get to 60,'” Spoelstra said. “Then when he got to 60, it just kept going. You know, ‘We might as well go to 70.'” And then I stopped thinking about taking him out. We just keep going. “
Some might argue with that — Spoelstra led by 16 points after three quarters against a 16-win team that had lost eight straight games and was yet to make a mark. actually Trying to win anything at this point, decided to bring Adebayo back at the start of the fourth quarter; despite the lead extending to 25 points midway through the fourth quarter, the Miami Heat continued to feed Adebayo’s goal; Spoelstra challenged Adebayo on a charge with 2:56 left in the game, eventually scoring 25 points; Heat players committed multiple deliberate fouls to ensure the Heat gained extra possession of the ball, and even deliberately missed free throws in an attempt to return the ball to Adebayor so that he could make history.
“It wasn’t until I had to look for the basketball that things really started to get crazy,” Adebayo said after the game. “You know, the whole first quarter, what, three and a half quarters, they didn’t double-team me. So I thought, ‘Okay, they’re going to let me go. And then [you] When you turn around, there are four people guarding you. […] When they just don’t want you to get the ball. “
“They obviously kept him in the game and … there were a lot of fouls,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe told reporters. “Sixteen free throws in the fourth quarter. Just trying to get the ball out of his hands. He still got some free throws 40 feet away from the basket. I can’t explain some of those calls. That’s what I’m saying.”
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On some calls, Adebayo initiated contact and defenders went right at him, and Keefe and the Wizards may have legitimate complaints. Elsewhere, the whistle seemed to stem from legitimate contact on the break and a hit at the rim — a natural outgrowth of Adebayo being physical and overpowering Washington defenders all night long.
No matter how you feel about Bam’s final score — he attempted more free throws (43) and made more free throws (36) than any player in NBA history has attempted in a single game — it’s worth noting that historic big games like this sometimes involve similarly extreme risk-taking. During Wilt’s 100-point game, the New York Knicks intentionally fouled the other Philadelphia Warriors in an attempt to keep the ball away from him, and the Warriors responded by intentionally fouling the Knicks to get the ball back so they could pass it to him. In 2006, the Lakers led the Raptors by 17 points with four minutes remaining, and Bryant continued to fire off nine more points before scoring 81 points. Intentional fouls were one of the reasons why Booker, 20, scored 70 points against the Celtics in 2017.
To paraphrase Spoelstra, this is the way it happens all the time.
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“I wanted to give him a little time,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t know when that will be. He just keeps going […] I didn’t stop until he got Kobe’s jersey. “
Pushing Bam as much as he can is important to Spoelstra, who has led Adebayo’s rise to becoming the Heat’s standard-bearer — organizing principle, leader, captain, guardian of the culture. That’s important for Adebayo, who “wasn’t labeled as a scorer when he came into this league,” but has turned himself into a force that can seize the opportunity to put his name in the history books alongside — or even ahead of — some of the greatest offensive players of all time.
“It’s surreal to have this moment,” he told reporters. “Because like I said, man, to be able to do that at home, in front of my mom, in front of my people, in front of the home fans, it’s a mark in history that will be remembered forever.”
