Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) reacts after becoming the second highest scorer for points per game in NBA history during the second half of a basketball game against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. The Miami Heat won 150-129.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards (16-48) on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center to match its season-long winning streak of six games and move to 2-0 on its four-game homestand. The Heat (37-29) continues the homestand on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks:
The Heat was missing half of its usual rotation, but it didn’t matter against the struggling Wizards. Why? Because Heat three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo produced an all-time moment with the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.
The Heat entered Tuesday’s game without a chunk of its preferred rotation, missing rotation regulars Tyler Herro (left quad soreness), Norman Powell (right groin strain), Kel’el Ware (right shoulder strain) and Andrew Wiggins (left big toe sesamoiditis).
The Heat was also without Nikola Jovic (low back injury management), Terry Rozier (not with team) and Jahmir Young (G League).
That left the Heat with just 11 available players against the Wizards: Adebayo, Simone Fontecchio, Myron Gardner, Vlad Goldin, Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Keshad Johnson, Trevor Keels, Pelle Larsson, Davion Mitchell and Dru Smith.
Adebayo is really all the Heat needed, as he put together a historic performance to lead the Heat to a win over the struggling Wizards.
Adebayo set a new franchise record for the most points by a Heat player in a game, finishing Tuesday’s win with an eye-opening 83 points on 20-of-43 shooting from the field, 7-of-22 shooting on threes and 36-of-43 shooting from the foul line in 42 minutes. He shattered the previous Heat record of 61 points set by LeBron James in a win over the then-Charlotte Bobcats on March 3, 2014.
In fact, Adebayo’s 83-point night is the second-highest scoring performance in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game on March 2, 1962 is ahead of Adebayo.
“I don’t even know how to put this night into words, man,” Adebayo said. “I still feel lightheaded. I don’t even know, like, how to really respond for real.”
Besides Chamberlain and Adebayo, Kobe Bryant is the only other player in NBA history to reach the 80-point mark in a game. Bryant scored 81 points on Jan. 22, 2006.
“This is a special moment,” Adebayo said. “It’s Wilt, me, then Kobe, which sounds crazy.”
Adebayo also set a new NBA record for free-throw makes (36) and attempts (43) in a game.
“To have this moment, it’s surreal,” Adebayo continued. “Because like I said, man, to be able to do it at home in front of my mom, in front of my people, in front of the home fans, this is a mark in history that will forever be remembered.”
Despite the lopsided score, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra left Adebayo in the game for the entire second half until subbing him out with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter to see how many points he could get up to.
“I didn’t dare even think about taking him out at that point,” Spoelstra said. “He just kept on going. I wanted him to have a moment. I didn’t know when that would be. He just kept on going.
“Otherwise, I was going to foul and allow the crowd to really enjoy the moment with him and allow him to enjoy this historic night in front of all the home fans. But it just kept on going.”
Adebayo was scorching hot from the start, totaling 31 points in Tuesday’s first quarter on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line. Behind Adebayo’s hot hand, the Heat took a 40-29 lead into the second quarter.
Not only did Adebayo set a new franchise record for the most points by a Heat player in any quarter, but it also marked the fifth-highest scoring quarter by a player in the NBA’s play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
James held the previous Heat record for the highest scoring quarter in franchise history, scoring 25 points in a third quarter on March 3, 2014 and 25 points in a first quarter on March 18, 2014.
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) dunks the basketball over Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr (20) during the first half of a basketball game on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
The only NBA players who scored more than 31 points in any quarter since the 1996-97 season are Klay Thompson (37-point third quarter on Jan. 23, 2015), Kevin Love (34-point first quarter on Nov. 23, 2016), Carmelo Anthony (33-point third quarter on Dec. 10, 2008) and Karl-Anthony Towns (32-point third quarter on March 14, 2022).
After beginning the second quarter on the bench., Adebayo re-entered the game with 7:02 left in the second quarter and scored another 12 points. He entered halftime with 43 points and the Heat ahead 76-62.
Adebayo’s 43-point first half set a new franchise record for the most points by a Heat player in any half, breaking the previous team record of 37 points set by James in a second half on March 3, 2014.
Adebayo also tied Giannis Antetokounmpo (43-point second half on Dec. 13, 2023) for the fifth-most points in any half by an NBA player since the start of the 1996-97 season. The only players during that span who have scored more points in a half are Bryant (55-point second half on Jan. 22, 2006), Devin Booker (51-point second half on March 24, 2017), Brandon Jennings (45-point second half on Nov. 14, 2009) and Towns (44-point first half on Jan. 22, 2024).
Adebayo then put together a 40-point second half to complete his 83-point masterpiece.
“Look at the company that he’s with right now,” Spoelstra said. “The absolute greats of the game, the scoring greats of the game. It’s an absolute credit to his relentless will and work ethic. He’s willed himself and worked himself into being a premier offensive talent in this league.”
The Heat never trailed in Tuesday’s game, leading by double digits for the entire second half to hand the Wizards their ninth straight loss.
“This was just an absolutely surreal night,” Spoelstra said. “Obviously, we’ve been blessed to have been a part of a lot of big moments in this arena. This one, it just happened.”
As for the Heat’s injuries, Herro and Ware’s ailments are the new ones to monitor.
While Powell missed his sixth straight game with a right groin strain and Wiggins missed his third straight game with left big toe sesamoiditis, Tuesday marked the first game that Herro and Ware missed with their injuries.
Herro had played in nine straight games and was just named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday before being ruled out for Tuesday’s game because of left quad soreness. He was listed as questionable for the contest before testing the quad in warmups and then being downgraded to out less than hour prior to tipoff.
Tuesday is the 46th game that Herro has missed this season. He was sidelined for 45 of the Heat’s first 56 games this season because of injuries.
In nine appearances since returning from nearly a month away from game action, Herro averaged 22.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 50.3% from the field, 27 of 60 (45%) from three-point range and 29 of 31 (93.5%) from the foul line before sitting out Tuesday’s contest.
“He’s going through his full warm-up and going through his process with the trainers,” Spoelstra said when asked about Herro’s status before he was ruled out for Tuesday’s game. “He wants to be out there. He understands this time of the year. And he’s missed enough time that he just wants to go for it. That’s the way he’s wired. He sees that we’re playing good basketball right now. But we’ll see. We’ll be responsible with it.”
For Ware, Tuesday only marked the fifth game this season that he has missed. He has played in all 61 games he has been available for this season, mostly as the Heat’s backup center.
Ware, who is averaging 11.4 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in his second NBA season, sustained his strained right shoulder during Sunday’s home win over the Detroit Pistons.
“It happened on one of those rebounds,” Spoelstra said Tuesday when asked how Ware hurt his shoulder. “But he was able to get everything checked out today. It looks encouraging. So he’ll just do treatment and then we’ll figure out when he can get back out there. I know he wants to get back out there soon.”
With so many rotation regulars out, the Heat was forced to use a new starting lineup.
The Heat opened Tuesday’s contest with a lineup of Mitchell, Jakucionis, Gardner, Larsson and Adebayo. It marked the Heat’s 22nd different starting lineup in 66 games this season.
Mitchell, Larsson and Adebayo are regular Heat starters. But Jakucionis and Gardner are starting lineup fill-ins.
Jakucionis, who made the 10th start of his rookie season, totaled five points, five rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes.
Gardner, who made seventh start of his rookie season, finished with four points, eight rebounds, two assists and three steals in 26 minutes.
The Heat’s bench rotation also looked a little different because of the team’s injuries.
The Heat used a bench rotation of Jaquez, Smith, Fontecchio and Johnson.
Jaquez and Smith are regulars in Miami’s bench rotation. But Fontecchio has been in and out of the rotation, and Johnson has played only sporadic minutes this season.
Fontecchio, who returned after missing the last three games with a groin injury, finished with 18 points on 3-of-4 shooting on threes, three rebounds, six assists, one steal in 22 minutes off the bench.
Johnson, who was unavailable for the last four games because he was in the G League, totaled eight points in 19 minutes off the bench.
The Heat continues its push to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament for the first time in four years.
With Tuesday’s win, the Heat moved percentage points ahead of the idle Orlando Magic for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. But the Heat (37-29) still has one more loss than the seventh-place Magic (35-28) this season.
With the Toronto Raptors losing on Tuesday, the Heat also moved percentage points behind the Raptors (36-28) for fifth place.
“We feel like we have some trends going in a great direction,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat on a six-game winning streak and 9-2 in its last 11 games. “But we also have to prove it. We have to stack up some wins and stack up some great games.”
The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons, needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 10:17 PM.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.