Source :- THE AGE NEWS
By Tim Reynolds
Miami: It’s Wilt, then Bam.
Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo had an all-time great game on Wednesday (AEDT), with a points total second to only Wilt Chamberlain in the NBA record books. Adebayo scored 83 points, setting league marks for both free throws made and attempted in a game for the Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards.
Adebayo couldn’t even get his first answer out in his post-game interview on-court before his teammates drenched him in water.
Bam Adebayo was mobbed by teammates after his 83-point game.Credit: AP
“Man, I wish I could relive it twice,” he said after making his way back to the microphone.
“I credit God, my family, my teammates, this crowd… and they kept feeding me the ball.”
Adebayo continued to pay tribute to his teammates.
“They’re like my second family,” he said.
“I couldn’t do it without ’em – somebody had to pass me the ball. I appreciate coach for drawing up plays for me, and I got it going tonight.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was at a loss to describe the performance of his 206-centimetre star big man. “[It was] an absolutely surreal night,” he said simply.
Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter and never stopped rolling. He was up to 43 at half-time, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defence that kept sending him to the foul line.
His final numbers: 20 of 43 from the field, 36-43 from the foul line, and 7-22 from three-point range. It was a stat line unlike any other in NBA history, and a night like none other for Adebayo.
He was in tears as he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.
“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”
Adebayo’s dunk with 22 seconds left in the third quarter gave him 62 points for the game, breaking the Heat single-game record of 61, set by LeBron James in March 2014.
The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas in December 2005.
He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 – a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.
Until now.
And Adebayo only needed the first half to set a career high, too.
‘Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore’
Bam Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson
Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter – and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.
He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high – for a full game, that is – of 41, set in January 2021 against Brooklyn.
Adebayo’s season high entering Wednesday’s game was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.
Adebayo said he knew he was achieving something special when he’d finished the first half with 43 points. Asked where this game ranked for him in his career, he said simply: “No.1 for sure. To be able to do it at home [in Miami] makes it even more sweeter”.
Adebayo’s injured teammate Norman Powell then took the mic from the host broadcaster and asked the man of the moment his own question.
“How does it feel to hear your name with Wilt [Chamberlain], Bam, Kobe [Bryant]?” he asked.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hugs Adebayo after his astonishing game.Credit: AP
Adebayo’s reply? “Obviously it’s [the] top three performances of all-time”.
A 31-point first quarter
Adebayo had the NBA’s highest-scoring quarter – any quarter – since Karl-Anthony Towns had 32 for Minnesota in the third quarter of a game at San Antonio in March 2022.
Besides Towns and now Adebayo, only three other players in the last 30 seasons had at least 31 points in a quarter.
- Klay Thompson had an NBA record for any quarter with 37 for Golden State against Sacramento in the third quarter on January 23, 2015.
- Kevin Love had 34 for Cleveland against Portland in the first quarter on November 23, 2016.
- Carmelo Anthony had 33 for Denver against Minnesota in the third quarter on December 10, 2008.
The previous Heat record for points in a first quarter was 25, achieved by James at Cleveland on March 18, 2014. James had the only other 25-point quarter in Heat history, part of his team-record, 61-point game against Charlotte.
Before Wednesday, Adebayo had never scored more than 19 points in a quarter.
His 43-point half
Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the past 30 seasons – going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
Towns had 44 for Minnesota against Charlotte in January 2024.
The NBA record for points in a first half is 53, shared by Denver’s David Thompson and San Antonio’s George Gervin – who famously did it on the same day, April 9, 1978. That was the final day of that regular season, as those two duelled (albeit in separate games) to decide the league’s scoring title.
AP with staff reporters
