I didn't see the Heat-Wizards game live, so I watched it this morning.
What Bam Adebayo did is incredible, full stop. 83 points is a lot of freaking points. Nobody else has done it except for Wilt Chamberlain, as you obviously already know if you're reading this newsletter.
There will be a lot of consternation about the way it was done, obviously. Because 43 field-goal attempts is a lot of freaking field-goal attempts and 43 free-throw attempts is a lot of freaking free-throw attempts. (So much so that the latter figure is a new NBA record. Nobody had ever taken more than 39 in a game.)
I mostly don't care all that much about the way it was done, because again, 83 points is a lot of freaking points. If anybody could do it, somebody else would have done it. But nobody did. Bam did. And it was special, even if it took gimmicks to get him there down the stretch.
Bam did have 43 in the first half alone, and it was honestly pretty damn legit. He went 13 of 24 from the field, 5 of 11 from three, and 12 of 14 from the line on legitimate fouls. The Heat at that point clearly committed to getting him as many points as possible in the second half, which makes sense because if you can be a part of history, you probably want to be a part of history.
Bam took 19 of the team's 40 second-half shots and went to the line an incredible 29 times after halftime. (He had never gone to the line more than 27 times in a game, and he did it in a single half last night.) When you account for true shooting possessions, he had 34 of the Heat's 49 after the break.
That's obviously not normal offense, but instead what happens when a player — and team — is chasing a specific mark. And the Heat definitely chased it just as much as Bam did, which essentially has to be the case for something like this to happen.
The shenanigans down the stretch of the game, with the Heat intentionally fouling the Wizards to get the ball back and then forcing the ball to Bam on every possession so they could make sure he got there, were a little ridiculous. But that happens in pretty much all of these absurd scoring performances. It's not out of the ordinary for a game like this, so much as "games like this" even exist. It even reportedly happened in Wilt's 100-point game, if you believe stuff like "the Sixers let the Knicks score quickly so they could get the ball back and give it to Wilt some more," which is just as verifiable or unverifiable as the 100 points, but entirely believable because how else does a guy score 100 points in a game except through shenanigans?
And you know what? The Wizards themselves also contributed to the way Bam was able to get there. They made it "easier" on him than it otherwise would or should have been. They were so committed to not letting him surpass Kobe Bryant's 81-point mark that they helped him get there in a way that I don't think would have happened if they just played regular ole defense in the second half. They just wouldn't. stop. fouling. him.
They were face-guarding him and fouling him. They were double- and triple-teaming him to stop him from getting the ball and fouling him. They were riding his body up and down the floor when he got the ball anyway and fouling him. They were too-aggressively contesting his shots on the rare occasions where he got the ball in the paint and fouling him for multiple and-ones. And in doing so, they all but ensured that Bam would get there in an easier way.
Bam had never scored more than 42 points in a game before he scored 43 in the first half. Was he really going to score 40 more in the second half if you made him play straight up? I doubt it. 40-point halves don't just happen. Something out of the ordinary needs to occur for someone to score 40 in a half — especially if that somebody is averaging 18.9 points per game and isn't a high-level three-point shooter or especially dominant figure on the interior.
And Bam indeed went just 7 of 19 from the field and 2 of 11 from three after the break. He cooled down considerably as he chased the points. If the Wizards didn't foul him as often as they did, it seems likely to me that he would have fallen well short of 81, let alone 83.
Alas, that's not what happened. Bam Adebayo scored 83 points in a basketball game. Was it pretty or perfect? No. Especially in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter. But it happened. And it had happened only once before. No matter what you think of the way it happened, you can't take it away from him.
