On a night both teams needed something big from their big men, the Atlanta Hawks shrunk Bam Adebayo down to size. Now the question becomes whether the Miami Heat’s All-Star center can rise to the occasion in a winner-take-all Friday play-in game.
With the Atlanta Hawks getting 21 rebounds from center Clint Capela, they easily moved on to the first round of the NBA playoffs with Tuesday night’s 116-105 kick in the teeth to the Heat at Kaseya Center.
With Adebayo again something less than his All-Star self, the Heat now either must win their Friday night second-chance home play-in game or miss the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
While Adebayo closed with 12 points and nine assists against the Hawks, as well as four assists, three steals and two blocked shots, his 5-of-12 shooting was indicative of an effort that failed to meet the challenge.
Since playing in the Feb. 19 All-Star Game, Adebayo has been reduced to something less than an All-Star. In his 54 games before the All-Star break, he averaged 21.6 points on .544 shooting, 10 rebounds and 3.3 assists. After the All-Star break, he closed the regular season over those 21 appearances averaging 17.3 points on .530 shooting, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
Then came Tuesday night, when the Heat power rotation was annihilated by the Hawks’ larger front line.
And then came exasperation from Adebayo afterward.
“We just got to figure out a way to get me the ball,” he said. “Other than that, some of the guys had it going. But we have to figure out how we can keep them going and also get me the ball.”
That has been the push-pull all season.
Since stating an offseason desire for more shots, it has been a balancing act between feeding Adebayo at his sweet spots or allowing Jimmy Butler to thrive with his isolation game. With Butler forced into playoff mode prior to the postseason due to the Heat’s seeding struggles that landed them in the play-in tournament, Adebayo no longer stood as the focus.
But Tuesday, with Butler off on a 6-of-19 shooting night, the Hawks stepped up on Adebayo, took away his mid-range game in the lane, and the Heat were left looking small and feeling smaller.
“With their length, it made them look like they were in two places at once,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Atlanta defense that not only contained Adebayo, but also limited the Heat to 11-of-34 3-point shooting. “Because for the most part, they would try to stay at home on the three-point shooters regardless of the coverage. But it wasn’t like they were leaving the paint wide open.”
Butler appreciated that even with his 21 points Tuesday, 33 from Kyle Lowry and 26 from Tyler Herro, there has to be more from Adebayo.
“Probably swinging the ball around, getting it to our shooters, make them close out,” Butler said of a means to an Adebayo end. “Have them play out of closeouts and then find him while he’s down there. I think that’s the best way to get him the ball, maybe a little bit more in transition.
“There’s a lot of ways that we have to be better, honestly, as a unit out there on the floor with Bam. We will, come Friday. We’ll watch some film and figure it out as a team.”
As it is, there isn’t much of a power-rotation support system for Adebayo, with the Heat already opening small with 6-foot-5 Max Strus at power forward.
At the buyout deadline, the Heat attempted to augment Adebayo in the middle with the size of Kevin Love and Cody Zeller.
Tuesday, there was no payoff in that regard.
Exposed defensively similar to how he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in last year’s play-in round, Love played only a single 3:26 stint, going without a rebound. Zeller was utilized for only 3:33. And while Zeller did grab three rebounds, he also was 1 of 4 from the field. Otherwise, the remaining 41:01 in the middle was manned by Adebayo.
And with Adebayo, it was a night when a 6-foot-9, 255-pound undersized center wasn’t enough, with the Heat outrebounded 63-39, outscored 26-6 on second-chance points, and outscored 64-46 in the paint. The Hawks’ 63 rebounds and 22 offensive rebounds were the most against the Heat this season. Prior to Tuesday, no team had recorded more than 56 overall rebounds or 17 offensive rebounds in a play-in game.
“I’ve said this before, we are a good defensive rebounding team,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat closing the season sixth in defensive-rebound percentage, securing 77.4% of opponent misses. “And I would say there’s probably been a little bit more than a half-dozen times this season, maybe eight to 10 times when we have not rebounded where it’s just been absolutely crippling in terms of how it’s hurt us. So that we definitely have to get to the film and go back to all the fundamentals.”
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