Takeaways and details from the Heat’s win over the Wizards behind Bam Adebayo’s big night
The Miami Heat and Washington Wizards faced off three times in a span of eight days and every game was close.
It took overtime for the Wizards to defeat the Heat in their first matchup last week in Washington. The Heat needed a run in the final three minutes of Wednesday’s game to hold on for the win in the second matchup.
On Friday, the teams’ third and final game during this eight-day stretch was decided in the final two minutes when the Heat (9-11) closed the game on a 6-2 run to earn a 110-107 victory over the Wizards (10-9) on Friday night at FTX Arena. It marked Miami’s second straight win after an 0-4 trip.
“It’s not like it’s shocking us or putting us in any kind of anxiety, it’s just this is our norm that these games are going to be like this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So you got to grind, you got to fight every single possession. Then you get down to these last three or four minutes, you have to put your imprint on the game. I think that’s the biggest thing, to develop a trust, a deep trust in what you’re trying to do and gaining confidence.”
With the Heat and Wizards entering the fourth quarter tied at 85, they traded punches throughout a back-and-forth final period that included six lead changes and four ties.
The Wizards led by one point with 2:24 to play, but the Heat scored the six of the final eight points of the night to escape with the win on Friday.
Heat center Bam Adebayo began the run by hitting two free throws and then followed that up with a layup to turn a one-point deficit into a three-point lead with 21.4 seconds left. After a dunk from Wizards guard Bradley Beal cut the Heat’s lead to one, forward Caleb Martin made two clutch free throws to push Miami’s lead back up to three
Despite Miami’s late run, Washington still had one final opportunity to send the game into overtime with possession and trailing by three points with 12.5 seconds to play. But Martin pressured Wizards guard Bradley Beal into a tough contested three-pointer that hit off the side of the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.
Adebayo was a force, setting a new season-high with 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting from the field to go with 12 rebounds and three assists in 35 minutes. He scored 12 points in the final 8:46 of the game.
The first quarter was a rough one for the Heat’s defense. The Wizards totaled 38 points on 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) shooting from the field in the opening period to enter the second quarter with a 10-point lead.
But after a slow start, the Heat’s defense got better. The Wizards shot 35.4 percent from the field over the final three quarters.
The Heat won on Friday despite missing six players, including star Jimmy Butler, because of injuries.
With Miami’s quick two-game homestand coming to an end on Friday, the Heat now hits the road for a four-game trip that begins Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Wizards on Friday:
The Heat’s ongoing injury issues limited it to just 10 available players on Friday. The good news for Miami is that Butler is expected back soon.
Miami was without six players against Washington: Butler (right knee soreness), Victor Oladipo (left knee tendinosis), Duncan Robinson (left ankle sprain), Max Strus (right shoulder impingement), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery). Vincent was in uniform and on the Heat’s active roster, however did not play.
The list of 10 available Heat players on Friday included Kyle Lowry, Tyler Herro, Martin, Nikola Jovic, Adebayo, Haywood Highsmith, Dru Smith, Jamal Cain, Dewayne Dedmon and Udonis Haslem.
With Lowry, Herro, Martin, Jovic and Adebayo starting, the bench rotation was made up of Highsmith, Smith, Cain and Dedmon.
But Butler, who missed his fifth straight game on Friday, is expected back in the coming days. The expectation is that Butler will return next week at some point during the Heat’s four-game trip that begins Sunday against the Hawks.
Butler, 33, has missed seven of the Heat’s first 20 games — two because of left hip tightness and five because of right knee soreness. Miami is 3-4 without Butler this season.
Meanwhile, the Wizards didn’t have Johnny Davis (right groin soreness), Rui Hachimura (right ankle soreness), Monte Morris (right ankle soreness) and Delon Wright (right hamstring strain) on Friday. But Washington did get Beal back after he missed Wednesday’s matchup against Miami because of a right thigh contusion.
Beal finished with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
Adebayo turned in one of the highest-scoring quarters and games of his NBA career to lead the injury-depleted Heat.
Adebayo opened the game with an aggressive and assertive offensive approach, totaling 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line and four rebounds in 10 first-quarter minutes.
It went down as the second-highest scoring quarter of Adebayo’s NBA career, only behind a 19-point first quarter he had against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 11 2021.
Adebayo didn’t stop there, closing with a season-high 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting from the field and 8-of-8 shooting from the foul line in Friday’s win. It’s the second-highest scoring game of his NBA career, behind only a 41-point performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 23, 2021.
Adebayo also set a new regular-season high with 22 field-goal attempts, which tied his playoff career-high that he set against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of last season’s Eastern Conference finals.
“Bam was Mr. Reliable,” Spoelstra said. “He has been Mr. Reliable all season long through all of the adversity. He’s the guy that we’ve just been able to count on with his mental stability, his consistency, his leadership and also his play on both ends of the court.”
Each of Adebayo’s 15 made field goals on Friday came from inside the paint.
“[Lowry] said he needed me,” Adebayo said. “He was feeling under the weather. When your point guard says that, you got to deliver. It’s one of those things where my teammates were giving me the ball and I was just taking advantage of the mismatch and the shots they were letting me have.”
Without Butler, the Heat needs others step up to fill the offensive void he leaves behind. Martin has been up to the task in the last two games despite feeling ill on Friday.
After totaling 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc in Wednesday’s win over the Wizards, Martin recorded 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes and 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line on Friday.
Martin, whose status was in question because of a non-COVID illness, made two clutch free throws to extend the Heat’s lead to three points with 12.5 seconds to play. He then forced Beal into a contested three-pointer, which would have tied the game, that bounced off the side of the backboard on the final possession of the game.
“I just think typically I always try to play unless it’s like an injury where it won’t allow to me to go or it will get worse as I play,” Martin said of playing through an illness Friday. “When I woke up this morning, I thought for sure I wasn’t playing. And I just told them to wait to make a decision as the day went on. Then when I got here, I was just going to play it by ear and I felt like I could go. Gabe was down too, so I figured that I would just give what I can.”
Friday was just the continuation of what’s on track to be a career-best year for the 27-year-old Martin, who is averaging career-highs in points (10.9), rebounds (4.9), assists (2.1), steals (1.3) and minutes (32.4) this season.
“Caleb just stacked another phenomenal winning game tonight,” Spoelstra said. “I thought it was fitting that he had the free throws and then the stop at the end. He does so many things for our team regardless of what defensive scheme we’re in.”
Martin wasn’t the only one on the Heat’s roster who played Friday while feeling sick. Cain and Lowry were also under the weather, with Lowry handling his postgame interview with a mask on.
Without two of its top outside shooters, the Heat struggled to generate enough three-point attempts but made up for it by scoring a bunch of paint points.
With Robinson and Strus combining to average 13 three-point attempts per game, the Heat could not replace enough of those shots.
The Heat closed Friday’s win with a season-low 26 three-point attempts. Miami entered averaging 35.7 three-point attempts per game for the season.
Along with not taking enough threes, the Heat also didn’t make enough threes. Miami finished 7 of 26 (26.9 percent) from three-point range against the Wizards, but still found a way to win with the help of a season-high 62 paint points.
The Heat is 6-0 this season when finishing a game with 50 or more paint points.
The Heat again made a change to one of its two two-way contract slots prior to Friday’s game.
The Heat waived center Orlando Robinson from his two-way contract to bring back Smith on a two-way deal.
Smith, a guard, opened the regular season on a two-way contract with the Heat before he was waived on Nov. 13 to bring in Robinson. At that point, Miami was in need of the frontcourt depth Robinson provided because Adebayo was dealing with a knee injury.
But with guards like Vincent and Oladipo among those out for the Heat on Friday, the Heat is now in need of backcourt depth. That’s one of the main reasons why Smith, 24, is back on a two-way contract with the Heat.
“We’re encouraged by both of them,” Spoelstra said Friday of Smith and Robinson. “In a perfect world, we would be able to develop both of them all season long. These are extreme circumstances right now. We have obviously some guys out. We feel right now, which is different than a week or two ago, we need some more reinforcement at the perimeter position.”
Smith, who went undrafted last year out of Missouri, was available for Friday’s game after being signed to his new two-way contract just hours before tipoff. He logged 16 minutes in the victory, finishing with two points, three rebounds and one assist.
Cain is Miami’s other two-way contract player. Two-way deals can be swapped out at any time.
This story was originally published November 25, 2022 at 10:44 PM.
