MIAMI (AP) — Bam Adebayo scored 83 points against the Miami Heat on Tuesday night, the second-highest total in NBA history:
83 points
Start with the obvious. Currently, only Wilt Chamberlain scores more points in a single game than Adebayo in the NBA single-game scoring list.
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Adebayo’s idol Kobe Bryant ranked second with 81 points.
“It speaks volumes about his hard work,” Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “I know Bam. He works his butt off every day. He never cheats. It’s unbelievable to see a guy like him do something like this.”
40-40 Club
Adebayo is the first player in the NBA’s play-by-play era (since the start of the 1996-97 season) to score 40 points in both halves of a game.
He scored 43 points in the first quarter and 40 points in the second quarter.
The closest thing to this mark in the past 30 years is Luka Doncic, who scored 41 points in Game 1 and 32 points in Game 2 on January 26, 2024 in Dallas against Atlanta.
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Chamberlain is the only member aged 40-40 – barely. He scored 41 points in the first half and 59 points after halftime.
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Adebayor made 36 free throws and 43 free throws, both of which are NBA single-game records.
Chamberlain scored 100 points for Philadelphia against New York on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, scoring 28 points that night. On January 4, 1984, in a game against Houston in Las Vegas, Utah’s Adrian Dantley also made 28 free throws.
The record for free throws was 39, both completed by Dwight Howard. He accomplished so much in Orlando against the Golden State Warriors on January 12, 2012, and then did it again on March 12, 2013, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against Orlando.
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3 point shot
Adebayo attempted 22 three-pointers, becoming the seventh player in NBA history to attempt the most three-pointers in a single game.
Others have done it at least that much: James Harden has done it four times, Stephen Curry has done it twice, and Damian Lillard, Marcus Smart, J.R. Smith and Klay Thompson have all done it once. Thompson set the Golden State Warriors’ single-game record with 24 shots on October 29, 2018 against the Chicago Bulls.
Thompson also hit a record 14 three-pointers that night.
From a perspective, Adebayo is average—average! — 15 3-pointers per season during his first seven years in the league.
43 shots
Adebayo’s 43 field goal attempts weren’t even an NBA season high. On November 10, Cade Cunningham scored 45 points in a game in Detroit.
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average score
In one night, Adebayo’s scoring average rose from 18.9 points to 20.0 points per game.
heat record
Among the many Heat regular season records Adebayo set Tuesday night:
— Highest score in a single quarter (31 points, the previous one was LeBron James with 25 points).
— Most points scored in the first half (43 points, 31 points from James, Dwyane Wade and Sherman Douglas).
— Most points scored in the second half (40 points, compared to James’ 37 points in the first half).
— Most shots taken in a game (43, compared to Wade’s 39).
— Most three-pointers attempted in a game (22, previous record was 17, six).
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