Adebayo adds to All-Star resume by besting Bucks’ Lopez. Now, showdown with Giannis looms
On the very first possession of the Miami Heat’s 108-102 win against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, Bam Adebayo went right at the Bucks’ towering 7-foot-1 defensive anchor.
Brook Lopez — usually paired with Giannis Antetokounmpo, also 7-foot, as Milwaukee’s post tandem — is one of the biggest reasons the Bucks have, by some measures, the best defense in the Eastern Conference. When Lopez and Antetokounmpo are on the court together, it’s almost impossible to get into the paint and score at the rim. Even when one is out there without the other, the Bucks protect the basket as well as just about any team in the league.
Adebayo, though, was not fazed. The 6-9 center started off his game by attacking from the baseline, dribbling twice toward the middle of the floor and then freezing a few feet in front of the free-throw line to square up for a fadeaway jumper beyond Lopez’s reach. The shot fell through for two points — the first of 24 for the 25-year-old star in the Heat’s win.
“Bam is special,” said wing Max Strus, who picked up the assist on the opening play. “Bam can attack anybody.”
On Thursday, he checked off Lopez, whom the NBA’s official site last month tabbed as the front-runner for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, as his latest victim with another efficient double-double in Miami. On Saturday, he will get a whole different test, though.
Antetokounmpo sat out Thursday because of left knee soreness, and it helped the Heat (23-20) get a win — no one around the organization will deny it. On Saturday, Miami will face the Bucks again at 1 p.m. and Antetokounmpo will likely be back in the lineup at FTX Arena.
As Adebayo pointed out, Milwaukee (27-15) will almost certainly score more than 18 points in the paint, as it did Thursday, and the Bucks’ two shots at the rim tied a 10-year single-game low. Both were in large part the product of Antetokounmpo’s absence from the lineup.
“He’s one of those guys that he puts his head down,” Adebayo said Thursday, “so, for us, it’s just building that wall and making it tough on them.”
Added coach Erik Spoelstra: “It’ll have a different tenor and feel to it.”
At this point, Adebayo doesn’t shrink against anyone, though. The former All-Star is averaging 24.1 points per game in his last eight, and in those games Adebayo has gone up against star centers including Nikola Jokic and Deandre Ayton, as well as excellent individual defenders such as Lopez and Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac. Although he currently sits outside the top 10 of All-Star voting for frontcourt players in the East, Adebayo is playing like one of the best post players in the entire league, with a real midseason case for the NBA All-Defensive Team and All-NBA Team.
The consistency of his play right now is particularly impressive. In those eight games, he only failed to crack 20 once, on Sunday against the Nets, and he didn’t play in the fourth quarter of the 10-point performance because of a wrist injury. The injury kept him out of Miami’s win against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, but didn’t seem to bother him against Lopez and Milwaukee.
Right now, Adebayo is finding the counters to and gaps within every defense.
“This has been part of the development for two straight years,” Spoelstra said, “just to take what’s available and find a way to continue to be aggressive, assertive regardless of what the coverage is.”
Like most athletic centers, Adebayo ideally would love to live around — and, particularly, above — the rim, as a pick-and-roll finisher and lob threat. It’s a skill he has had since the earliest days of his career, and it made him valuable even when he was still raw and inexperienced, taking rougly 60 percent of his shots within three feet of the hoop in his first two seasons.
In recent years, he developed a midrange jump shot and perhaps too frequently fell in love with it. In the past two years, more than 10 percent of his shots came from outside 16 feet.
Finally, he has found the way to use all his abilities, with about 30 percent of his shots within three feet, almost 40 in the range of 3-10 feet and about 30 from outside 10, but less than 7 percent of from beyond 16. He still does most of his damage as a dive threat, but he can stop short of the rim, and finish with push shots and pull-up jumpers, especially when defenses are designed to drop their centers back, like the Bucks’.
He put it all on display against Milwaukee on Thursday. The expectation will be similar, even if the challenge will be different.
“He’s going to have to make some of those in-circle shots against this team based on that specific coverage. ... You also have to read that immediately in the possession and this is what we’re talking about,” Spoelstra said. “He’s really been working on that this year, not to predetermine.
“He just did a really good job of reading the situations tonight.”
Herro questionable for Bucks rematch
After missing multiple games in the last week, guard Tyler Herro and forward Caleb Martin could return to the lineup this weekend for the Heat’s rematch with the Bucks.
Martin is listed as probable with a left quadriceps strain after missing four straight game and Herro is listed as questionable with left Achilles soreness after missing back-to-back games.
Power forward Udonis Haslem is also listed as probable with right Achilles tendinosis.
Kyle Lowry, however, remains out with left knee discomfort, meaning Miami still won’t quite have its entire starting lineup back to face Milwaukee. The point guard will miss his third straight game.
Rookie small forward Nikola Jovic will also miss his ninth straight game with a lower back stress reaction.
Wing Duncan Robinson and center Omer Yurtseven are still out with long-term injuries, too.
The Bucks will have most of their rotation back after Antetokounmpo and wing Grayson Allen both sat out Thursday. Only forwards Serge Ibaka and Khris Middleton remain out for Milwaukee.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 9:58 AM.
