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Bam Adebayo, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra dismiss critics of 83-point game: ‘I apologize to absolutely no one’
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Bam Adebayo and Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra answered critics of the star big man’s 83-point effort in Tuesday’s 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards.
“I apologize to absolutely no one,” Spoelstra told reporters, via ClutchPoints’ Zachary Weinberger.
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Adebayo scored the second-highest total in a single game in NBA history, second to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962 and surpassing Kobe Bryant’s 81 points in 2006. However, many observers questioned the integrity of Adebayo’s performance, during which he took 43 free throws (the most in an NBA game) and attempted 22 3-pointers.
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Spoelstra said Adebayo was doing exactly what was asked of him before the game. The effort simply went in a direction no one could have anticipated, resulting in what Spoelstra called “a magical night.”
“It’s a Tuesday night game against a team where they’re not playing for anything, the organization is trying to lose,” the Heat coach explained. “We’ve already lost a game in that kind of situation. We have players that are sitting out.
“And I spoke to Bam … I want, as our best player and team captain, for him to be locked in. And he sure was. … He approached that game appropriately.”
Later, after the Heat’s 112-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Adebayo went at his critics just as hard:
“For the couch coaches, if you’re in my shoes … I was not the one who let me go 1-on-1 the whole game without letting me see a double.”
“I’m going for it. You can’t be mad at that. If you are mad, I don’t care,” he added.
Detractors noted Adebayo’s performance came against a Wizards team that has the third-worst record in the NBA and is apparently tanking in efforts to win the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft. However, a win was important for Miami, which currently holds the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference but is only a half-game from falling to the seventh spot, which would put them in the mix for a play-in spot rather than an assured playoff berth.
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Others faulted Spoelstra’s eventual strategy of committing fouls to get the Heat more offensive possessions and thus more opportunities for Adebayo to score. That was one of the reasons Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh said Adebayo’s effort should be accompanied with an asterisk (albeit with a wink).
Yet with 62 points after the third quarter and Miami holding a 14-point lead, a historic scoring total was within reach and achieving it became a rallying point for the team and fans at Kaseya Center.
The coach dismissed attempts to define the effort as “unethical” or not playing real basketball. Those making such accusations likely didn’t even see Tuesday’s game and the circumstances of Adebayo’s performance.
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“That’s unethical,” Spoelstra said.
Adebayo also noted chasing records is kind of the point of records:
“If you’re mad, I don’t care, because a lot of people, they’re upset because if they did play, they never had a chance to get that close to chasing greatness. And if you get that close to chasing greatness, that’s the point of chasing it, so you can surpass it.”
Spoelstra cited the galvanizing effect of the Heat players uniting toward one effort as important for the team’s playoff drive through the remaining 16 games of the regular season.
“This locker room has wanted something … I texted a little bit with Dwyane [Wade] afterwards and he’s talking about that buzz. Well, there’s going to be a buzz now,” he said. “There will be a responsibility to that buzz. Good. I want there to be pressure on our team.”
