Bam Adebayo scored 83 points in the Heat‘s victory over the Wizards on Tuesday, becoming the sole owner of the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.
In doing so, Adebayo passed Kobe Bryant‘s longstanding 81-point second-place mark, which the former Lakers star recorded on January 22, 2006.
Adebayo went 7-for-22 from three and 36-for-43 from the free throw line. He broke the NBA record for made free throws (previously 28, by Adrian Dantley and Wilt Chamberlain), attempted free throws (previously 39, by Dwight Howard), and became the first player ever to ever attempts 30 or more free throws and 20 or more three-pointers in a game, per The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov (Twitter link).
By the end of the night, the Wizards were triple-teaming Adebayo and intentionally fouling his teammates just to keep the Heat’s center off the free-throw line, but a quick spin move in transition drew the shooting foul and allowed Adebayo to reach his goal. He was subbed out soon after getting to 83 points.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra said the three-time All-Star made his decision-making down the stretch easy.
“I didn’t even dare think about taking him out,” Spoelstra said, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
Chamberlain’s 100-point record has remained unbroken since March 2, 1962.
10 more FT than the previous record. Wild. Regardless congrats Bam. Also Wilt’s 100 is fake lol
Bro the wizards are completely trash 150 to bam and bench players. NBA had a lack of talent. Bottom teams are terrible.
Congratulations Bam, if they give it take it. Passed up Kobe.
Star I don’t ever want to heard about you being a defender. Can give up 84 to bam
8/10 on the ragebait, nice work lol
I think we can stop with the “SGA is a free throw merchant” when a dude takes 43 free throws in a game….
Wilt’s 100 is fake?? I listened to that game, March 2, 1962 (not on TV those days). He earned every point. He scored 31 points in the 4th quarter with all 5 Knicks hanging all over him. You sound like you’re talking out of the back of your pants.
There’s video of ww1, but none of his 100 point game?
Bam Adebayo 🙏🙏
Totally had this on my nba Bingo card..
Bam has long been one of my fave modern players, great to see him drop an all-time game. Remember it wasn’t so long ago he was a “d-only” guy…nope never again! Bam is forever a 20/10 threat, on top of the defense!
A lot of players could do this if they were as selfish as Kobe.
Games like this are team efforts which also require the coaching staff to approve. They really should happen more often. Lots of players could do it. 60-70 should happen 20 times a season, but coaches put the guys on the bench for “rest.” Rest is the biggest hoax of the 21st century.
Great job by him. Helluva performance. People who don’t appreciate it aren’t real NBA fans. The game always rewards you when you put in the work like he has.
The delusional old heads are going to say “Todays NBA is soft”, crying over every NBA record being broken🤣
Great performance by Bam.
Not every record. Wilt’s is still holding steady…for now.
Fake record, no video proof
Yea but it came against the wizards. They aren’t even an NBA team.
The crazy thing to me is the Kobe 81pts game was over 20 years ago. Time flies, congrats to Bam.
So listen, my Wiz played like garbage, played even worse than you’d expect for the tanking. No one can deny that. But for Bam to go 36-43 from the free throw line is pretty ridiculous. There has to be some looking into the situation by the NBA whether its into the officiating or the tank job by the Wizards because this was a pretty questionable performance by both the wizards and officials in my opinion. But, you give the man his flowers for sure, Bam’s a damn good basketball player. I don’t think he’s in the same conversation as Kobe or Wilt, but here we are in todays NBA.
For Bam to be the guy to do it. Is amazing in itself. Yeas the team helped him. It still is a big time achievement. Specially like Davey says. He was known as D guy only. Great day for Bam. Plus always cool when we can talk about and look back at Wilt.
Giving 1 player 14 more FA attempts then the other team combined sure would help them get a scoring record… Wizards should get #1 after this as a NBA gift.
Boooooo