Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game Tuesday night has seemingly forced the basketball world to pick one of two sides: Celebrate the second-highest scoring game in NBA history or dismiss it for how the final points were accomplished.
In the age of social media, everyone has a voice. And the negativity is often louder than the praise, which was the case after Adebayo’s historic night. Let’s be clear: All of Adebayo’s points didn’t come organically. But with that many points in a 48-minute game, some maneuvering had to happen. The Heat are entitled to an opinion too, which coach Erik Spoelstra laid out simply ahead of Miami’s game against the Bucks Thursday. He doesn’t care about the criticism. And he shouldn’t.
As Adebayo had 70 points with about eight minutes left in the game, his Heat teammates and coaches appeared to have decided they were going to see how far the scoring could go. Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performance wasn’t too far away and the game was already over in terms of the scoreboard. When that point came, Adebayo began to throw up wildly contested threes and take shots while guarded by numerous defenders near the hoop. Washington’s adjustments to take the ball away from Adebayo backfired, which sent the star big man to the line 13 times in the last seven minutes of the game.
Another factor that has drawn criticism is Spoelstra’s hand in the final frame. With just under three minutes left in the game, he challenged a charge called on Adebayo while Miami was up by 25 points, hoping to overturn the call and send him to the line. His players and the entire stadium pressured him into it as the energy in the building grew by the second. Spoelstra obliged, but the call wasn’t overturned. No harm, no foul.
Miami decided to intentionally foul in an effort to get Adebayo the ball back without much time ticking off toward the end of the game, too. When a team has a big lead, you normally don’t see intentional fouls to get the ball back. But this wasn’t a normal night. The Heat intentionally fouled three times, twice where it eventually led to Adebayo getting to the line. The third instance was to get him out of the game to a massive ovation.
What happened after the intentional fouls and before Adebayo’s free throws that took him past Bryant’s 81 points is critical to the discussion: Clear fouls committed by Wizards defenders.
Still, though, Adebayo’s 36-for-43 night from the foul line (a record for free throws both attempted and converted) was bound to get some flak. Spoelstra addressed the criticism Thursday night, which enforced that the outside noise hasn’t jostled him or his team.
“I apologize to absolutely no one. Period,” the Heat coach said to reporters Thursday via Zachary Weinberger of ClutchPoints. “Going into the game, it’s a Tuesday night game against a team that isn’t playing for anything and their organization is trying to lose. We’ve already lost a game in that kind of situation. We have players that are sitting out and I spoke to Bam about how I want him, as our best player and team captain, to be locked in and ready. And he sure was.
“The way he played in the first quarter had nothing to do with what happened afterwards. It was about our opportunity. And as a leader of the team, he approached that game appropriately. And the fact that he was still in the game at the end, this is what our fans want to see and this is what you really want to see happen in this league, for there to be some competitive storylines. And then a brilliant, magical night just appearing out of nowhere.”
Erik Spoelstra on the criticisms of Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game:
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) March 12, 2026
“I apologize to absolutely no one…” #HeatNation
Full response: pic.twitter.com/Hk4egEz1A7
The thing is, both Bryant’s big night and Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game came with some stat inflating, too. When Bryant scored 81 in a win over the Raptors, he took 13 of the Lakers’ final 17 shots and shot 13 free throws in the fourth quarter. Although that game was more competitive, he stayed in the game while the Lakers were up by 17 points with just over three minutes to go so he could reach 80.
In Chamberlain’s 100-point night that famously has no video, his Philadelphia Warriors began to intentionally foul the Knicks in an effort to get the ball back, just like we saw the Heat do a couple times on Tuesday. Because those basketball oddities happened in all three instances doesn’t mean that the historic performances mean any less.
The noise is just louder for this one thanks to the internet, but Spoelstra rightfully doesn’t care.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Erik Spoelstra Dismissed Criticism on Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game in the Perfect Way.
