In one of the more shocking performances in a long time, Bam Adebayo passed Kobe Bryant for the second-most points all-time in a single game, pouring in 83 points for the Heat in their win over the Wizards on Tuesday.
With the game well out of hand down the stretch, Bam took a number of trips to the free throw line down the stretch to move past Kobe.
Bam set a number
of records in this game outside of the 83 points. He finished the night shooting 20-43 from the field, 7-22 from three and 36-43 from the free throw line. He added nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.
But the record-breaking parts of that have to do with the shooting. The 36 made free throws are the most ever, the 43 attempted free throws is the most ever and the 22 attempted threes is the third-most ever.
There was certainly some gamesmanship down the stretch of this one to get Bam the record. The Heat were comfortably ahead in the fourth and began force-feeding the ball to Bam, as any team would do.
The Wizards, being the awful basketball team they are, kept fouling him and sending him to the line. Their attempts at double- and triple-teaming him did little to slow him down as they kept fouling him. Very late on in the game, the Heat began intentionally fouling to allow more chances for Bam to pass Kobe.
Hilariously, Washington answered by intentionally fouling other Heat players to send them to the line. Eventually, though, Bam did pass Kobe for the second-best scoring game in league history.
There will certainly be a lot of debate and consternation about this game compared to Kobe’s 81-point game. In his performance, Kobe went 18-20 at the line, attempting half as many free throws as Bam. He also made as many threes as Bam (7) in nearly half as many attempts (13).
But at the end of the day, records were made to be broken. None of it is all that serious. Kobe’s legacy is not changed by this game. In fact, it’s a good time to remember his final tweet and what he said of the future of the game.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
