MIAMI (AP) — Bam Adebayo’s encore performance: 21 points.
Adebayo — in the game after his 83-point outburst — settled for 62 fewer points Thursday night, when he and the Miami Heat defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 112-105 for their seventh consecutive win.
Adebayo’s stat line: 6 for 20 from the field, 9 for 13 from the foul line and 0 for 5 from 3-point range in 35 minutes.
And he was exhausted, as would be expected.
“To be able to move onto the next game, get the win and figure it out in a different way … it wasn’t 83 tonight. It was 21,” Adebayo said, describing the 48 hours between Tuesday’s game and Thursday’s game as an emotional roller-coaster. “And if anybody’s upset, I don’t care.”
It was nothing like the 20-for-43 shooting from the field, 36-for-43 from the foul line, 7-for-22 from 3-point range effort that he turned in Tuesday in a win over the Washington Wizards for the No. 2 single-game scoring effort — behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point night — in NBA history.
But he came up big when Miami needed it the most, getting 12 of his points in the fourth quarter against the Bucks.
“He has the ultimate mental toughness, and that’s what separates the great competitors in this league,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I’m not talking about the great scorers, just the great winning players. Just lock in on the task at hand, regardless of what’s happened for the first three quarters, whether it’s gone according to plan, whether it has gone smoothly or not.”
Pelle Larsson had a career-high 28 points and Kasparas Jakučionis scored 18 for Miami, and those efforts were needed.
“Man, I’m thankful for my teammates,” Adebayo said. “They stepped up in a big way. … Tonight it was Pelle and Kas, and sort of me.”
The Heat had a slew of celebrations in Adebayo’s honor, some of which started Wednesday when the team unveiled $83 jerseys, $13 tickets (in honor of his actual jersey number) and even started assembling Adebayo No. 83 jerseys.
“I haven’t seen them yet,” Adebayo said.
They exist, and as he walked out of the locker room Thursday night some fans at the other end of a corridor saw him. They starting yelling right away.
Not his name. They were yelling “83.”
“You live in the moment,” Adebayo said. “Every time you get a chance to see it, hear it, you grasp it.”
On the concourses Thursday — from the time the doors opened until, of course, 8:30 p.m. — the team was selling 83-cent popcorn, chips or can of soda at some kiosks, and an $8.30 meal deal that included a hot dog, popcorn and fountain drink.
“You feel awesome for Bam,” Spoelstra said. “You feel so great for his story, how he’s gotten to this point. And you feel great for his family, his mom, A’ja (Wilson, his four-time WNBA MVP girlfriend), his whole circle. Just quality human beings. They make you want to root for that whole team.”
Adebayo remains the only player in the NBA to have 100 points in a two-game span this season. He’s actually done it twice: he had 24 points in the game before the 83-pointer (for a 107-point total) and now has a 104-point, two-game stretch as well.
His showing Tuesday was still the talk of the league on Thursday, and Bucks coach Doc Rivers thinks it’s a night that will be talked about for a long time.
“It was just one of those rare nights where a great guy — that’s what Bam is — had a great night and it was all good,” Rivers said. “That’s the way I looked at it.”
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