Celtics at Miami fast way for Bam Adebayo, Heat to get past dispiriting opening night loss | Opinion
Bam Adebayo was enduring, on Opening Night, one of those games even the best athletes occasionally suffer.
When he missed even a dunk shot off the rim he was then 0-for-6 and his body visibly sagged, chin down. He picked up a loose-ball foul in frustration. When a minute later his first shot at last fell with 6:01 left in the first half, he jabbed both arms up to the rafters as if to say, “Finally!” Running down the court he put both palms together above his head as if thanking the heavens.
He would finish with 12 points on clanky 5-for-15 shooting in the Heat’s season-opening home loss.
“I missed shots I make everyday in practice, everyday in shootaround, and they were off by inches” he said afterward. “It was one of those games where, ‘What don’t kill you makes you stronger’.”
The NBA never makes you wait long for a chance to get pat a loss, and Miami gets a pereccft one Friday night with a visit by the rival and nemesis Boston Celtics, who narrowly ousted Miami in the Eastern Conference finals last season.
“Gonna bring back bad memories,”admitted the Heat’s Caleb Martin.
“No, we don’t have to make it personal,” Tyler Herro said across the lockerroom after Wednesday night’s opener. “Just get past this game.”
The saying, “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” comes to mind with Adebayo’s start to the season.
It was an anointment for him, a bequeathing, not less. The chosen one did not receive the honor on bended knee, yet it was a knighting. This was a ceremonial gesture without the ceremony, but it somehow felt official and real -- embodying everything the Miami Heat capitalize as Culture.
“It is time for him,” declared Udonis Haslem of Bam.
U.D. the O.G. began his 20th and last NBA season Wednesday, all with my his hometown team. It is his 16th consecutive season as Heat captain. Haslem is the leader of this team and its soul and beating heart , relying zero on his minutes played or points scored.
He named his successor this week, the caretaker of his legacy, in a way.
“He can have it now. It’s time for him,” said Haslem. “We’ve had these conversations, about [him taking on the role] physically, vocally, emotionally. I told him it’s time for him.”
The 42-year-old Haslem has nurtured Adebayo sometimes without words. There might be a tense huddle during a timeout when things aren’t going well. Haslem purposely stays quiet, but looks at Adebayo, and nods. Bam speaks up.
“He’s made me get out of my comfort zone,” says Adebayo. “It’s a blessing that he trusts me.”
The Heat’s 35th franchise Opening Night, and 15th for Erik Spoelstra as head coach, began with a rather dispiriting 116-108 home loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Adebayo did not make it to the free-throw line until only 3:45 remained.
“That’s an anomaly. He was missing point blank shots,” said Spoelstra. “That happens. Even if he makes some of those it wouldn’t have made up for our defense.”
Picking up the slack were Jimmy Butler with 24 points, Tyler Herro with 23 and Max Strus with 22 off the bench -- but they didn’t get enough help. The three other starters shot a combined 9-for-31.
The game was lost on the other end, though, with DeMar DeRozan burying Miami with 37 points for Chicago, the Bulls taking charge with a 16-4 run in the third quarter.
“We weren’t making multiple efforts,” Spoelstra said. “DeRozan got fully into his comfort zone. We were giving up crazy-easy baskets.”
Said Butler: “Gotta communicate better, get back better. We did a lot of things wrong.”
It presents as an unusual season for Miami, chasing its fourth league championship and first since the Year of LerBron 2013. Last year ended one Butler 3-point basket against Boston from a spot in the NBA Finals, after the best regular-season record in the East. But this one begins under-radar after a quiet, uneventful Heat offseason that has been media-spun perhaps accurately as a step back in an improving East.
Betting odds put the Heat only fifth-best in the East after Milwaukee, Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The Heat hosting the Celtics Friday night is way too early for Litmus test-gravity but has that feel.
Because a home loss to a Bulls team not at full strength to start was nobody’s idea of instant encouragement.
It was not anything to refute concern that the Heat essentially stood pat this offseason (minus departed P.J. Tucker) while others around them improved.
“It hurts for sure,” said Herro of the loss.
Miami beating the odds, and perception, depends on much.
Butler continuing his elite-level play at 33. Kyle Lowry, in-shape, healthy and staving off the notion he may in visible decline. Herro blossoming in his new starting role, and Martin proving himself in his. Eventual health and a steady contribution from Victor Oladipo at last.
And then there is Bam, still only 25 as he enters his sixth Heat season.
He has made an all-star team, been a defensive force and increased his scoring all five seasons, from 6.9 points as a rookie to 19.1 last season.
Now the Heat is demanding more -- and the team exceeding expectations may very well depend on it.
As we saw glimpses of in the preseason Miami wants Adebayo to be more aggressive, more offensive, with an increased presence on the perimeter and in time even an evolving 3-point game, perhaps.
Count the off-night to start as simply that: An off-night.
Adebayo sounds up for the challenge of raising his game from an already high level, and we’d be surprised if there wasn’t fast evidence Friday night vs. the nemesis Celtics.
“That mentality of going, going going -- that there is no stopping me,” he says of his mindset now. “It’s my will.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 10:09 PM.
