Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo scores 83 points, the second most in a game in NBA history behind only Wilt Chamberlain
The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas in December 2005.
He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 – a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.
Until now.
And Adebayo only needed the first half to set a career high, too.
Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter – and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.
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He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high – for a full game, that is – of 41, set in January 2021 against Brooklyn.
Adebayo’s season high entering Wednesday’s game was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hugs Adebayo after his astonishing game.Credit: AP
A 31-point quarter
Adebayo had the NBA’s highest-scoring quarter – any quarter – since Karl-Anthony Towns had 32 for Minnesota in the third quarter of a game at San Antonio in March 2022.
Besides Towns and now Adebayo, only three other players in the last 30 seasons had at least 31 points in a quarter.
- Klay Thompson had an NBA record for any quarter with 37 for Golden State against Sacramento in the third quarter on January 23, 2015.
- Kevin Love had 34 for Cleveland against Portland in the first quarter on November 23, 2016.
- Carmelo Anthony had 33 for Denver against Minnesota in the third quarter on December 10, 2008.
The previous Heat record for points in a first quarter was 25, achieved by James at Cleveland on March 18, 2014. James had the only other 25-point quarter in Heat history, part of his team-record, 61-point game against Charlotte.
Before Wednesday, Adebayo had never scored more than 19 points in a quarter.
His 43-point half
Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the past 30 seasons – going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
Towns had 44 for Minnesota against Charlotte in January 2024.
The NBA record for points in a first half is 53, shared by Denver’s David Thompson and San Antonio’s George Gervin – who famously did it on the same day, April 9, 1978. That was the final day of that regular season, as those two duelled (albeit in separate games) to decide the league’s scoring title.
More to come
AP
