150-129 victory<\/a> over the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\nMixing a variety of 3-pointers, post moves and an NBA-record amount of free throws, Adebayo initially set the Heat records for points in a quarter and half.<\/p>\n
And then, even before the end of the third quarter, Adebayo dunked for points No. 61 and 62, breaking James\u2019 franchise record of 61.<\/p>\n
And kept on going from there, his total the second highest in league history behind only the mythical 100 of Wilt Chamberlain, surpassing the 81 of Kobe Bryant for second place.<\/p>\n
And when it was over, a hug for girlfriend A\u2019ja Wilson, the WNBA superstar, and his mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t hit me until I hugged her and I hugged my mom,\u201d Adebayo said, seated beside Wilson at his postgame media session.<\/p>\n
And even then, he said, \u201cto have this moment is surreal. Still, I feel lightheaded.\u201d<\/p>\n
A night of points for Adebayo, nerves for Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hiding a little bit,\u201d she said, \u201conly because I got nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adebayo understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWilt, me and Kobe, sounds crazy,\u201d he said, shaking his head.<\/p>\n
That kind of night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis,\u201d coach Erik Spoelstra said, \u201cwas just an absolutely surreal night.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoments happen. I\u2019m grateful that we were all able to be a part of it and witness it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with Adebayo\u2019s roll, the Heat continued their roll.<\/p>\n
The victory extended the Heat\u2019s season-best winning streak to six, making it nine victories in their past 11 games, now a season-best eight games above .500 at 37-29.<\/p>\n
For the Wizards, who for yet another season are doing their best to tank, it was a victory of sorts, as well, falling to 16-48.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Adebayo from Tuesday night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Unreal: Adebayo closed 20 of 43 from the field, including 7 of 22 on 3-pointers, as well as 36 of 43 from the foul line, both with NBA records, with nine rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n
He became the 11th player in NBA history to score at least 70 and joined Chamberlain, David Robinson and Joel Embiid as the only centers to do so.<\/p>\n
His scoring total was the most ever against the Wizards\u2019 franchise, with the previous record being 73 by Chamberlain in 1962, when counting the combined histories of the Packers\/Zephyrs\/Bullets\/Wizards.<\/p>\n
It was the ninth 50-point game in the Heat\u2019s 38 seasons, following three by Wade, two by James and one apiece by Glen Rice, Alonzo Mourning and Jimmy Butler.<\/p>\n
It was, of course, by far the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season \u2014 by far \u2014 surpassing the 56 by Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic on Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say once he got to 50 then we\u2019re thinking, alright, maybe he can get to 60,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cAnd when he got to 60, it just kept on going \u2014 we might as well go for 70. And then I didn\u2019t dare even think about taking him out at that point. We just kept on going.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Sizzling start: Adebayo\u2019s 31 points in the first quarter broke the franchise record for points in a quarter, which had been 25 twice by James.<\/p>\n
Adebayo closed the quarter 10 of 16 from the field, including 5 of 8 on 3 pointers, as well as 6 of 7 from the foul line.<\/p>\n
Adebayo\u2019s fourth 3-pointer gave him 200 for a career.<\/p>\n
To put Adebayo\u2019s 31 first-quarter points in perspective, the Heat, as a team, entered leading the league in first-quarter scoring this season at 31.6 points. His 31 in the first quarter already tied the Heat\u2019s scoring record for a half.<\/p>\n
It was the highest total by an opponent in a first quarter against the Wizards in their history and the most in any quarter in the NBA this season, with the previous high being 27 by James Harden when he was with the Clippers in November.<\/p>\n
Adebayo\u2019s previous scoring high in a quarter over his nine seasons had been 19.<\/p>\n
In the NBA\u2019s era of tracking quarter scoring, since 1996-97, Adebayo\u2019s 31 was the fifth-highest scoring quarter, with the only players to score more being Klay Thompson (37), Kevin Love (34), Carmelo Anthony (33) and Karl-Anthony Towns (32).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just talked about continuing to play our game and the ball was finding him,\u201d Spoelstra said of Adebayo\u2019s start.<\/p>\n
3. Then more: Adebayo\u2019s 43 points in the first half then broke the franchise record for points in any half.<\/p>\n
The first-half record had been 31 once apiece by James, Wade and Sherman Douglas. The Heat record for points in any half had been a 37-point second half by James.<\/p>\n
Adebayo\u2019s previous career high for a game had been 41, with his previous high game this season of 32.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy teammates were very geeked at halftime,\u201d Adebayo said. \u201cFor me it was very calm and locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous highest-scoring first half this season in the NBA had been 37 points by Spurs center Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all fans and historians of the game,\u201d Spoelstra said. You start talking about what Kobe got and it was only 12, 14 points away from getting to that point, so then you\u2019re just caught up in the moment like everybody else. I didn\u2019t want to get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
4 Another one: With Herro (quad), Powell (groin), Wiggins (toe) and Ware (shoulder) out, the Heat against Trae Young-less Wizards opened with Adebayo, Pelle Larsson, Davion Mitchell, Myron Gardner and Kasparas Jakucionis.<\/p>\n
In their 66th game, it was the Heat\u2019s 22nd lineup.<\/p>\n
It was Gardner\u2019s seventh start, with the Heat entering 4-2 when he starts.<\/p>\n
5. Game flow: The Heat led 40-29 after the first quarter and 76-62 at halftime, then moving to a 113-97 lead through three quarters.<\/p>\n
Despite falling behind by as many as 27, the Wizards then closed within 13 early in the fourth quarter, before Adebayo, Simone Fontecchio and then Dru Smith converted consecutive 3-pointers to put the Heat up 124-102.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we have some trends going in a great direction,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe also have to prove it. We have to stack up some wins and stack up some great gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up are the Bucks on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra\u2019s message to his team? \u201cHopefully you guys enjoy this. Have a great night in Miami together. Then we\u2019ll get ready for Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 So what do you do when you are lacking Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15960,123,125,2490,124,5848],"class_list":["post-186736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}