Bam Adebayo scored the second most points in NBA history last night, putting up 83 points in a 150-129 Miami Heat victory over the Washington Wizards.
Coming into the game Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, and Kel'el Ware were all out, so Bam's shot attempts were predicted to increase. The Wizards also have the second-worst defensive rating in the league, but nobody was expecting Adebayo to have a 57.7% usage rate - the seventh highest ever recorded in a single game.
This game was so absurd that it single handedly increased Adebayo's season point average from 18.9 to 20.0 and his free throw attempts per game from 4.8 to 5.5 for the season.
It had been 20 years since Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006, and it seemed like Bryant's scoring total would hold at second place in the history books forever.
Bryant took 46 of his team's 88 shots and made 26 of them, while also shooting 7/13 from three and 18/20 from the free throw line.
Of course, Wilt Chamberlain holds the record with his 100 point game he put up against the New York Knicks in 1962. Wilt played all 48 minutes of the game and finished shooting 36-for-63 from the field and 28/32 from the free throw line.
But those two games were back in a day where Chamberlain was an anomaly compared to his peers, and Kobe would play 40+ minutes every game, averaging the most shot attempts per game in the league.
With the way that modern NBA teams pass the ball around, the depth of scoring talent on each team exponentially increasing, and defenses becoming more complicated, there's no way a modern day player would put up 80+....right?
There have been recent instances of star players putting up 70+ points in a game, but to reach 83 is whole different animal - especially for someone who averaged less than 20 points a game coming into it.
Luka Doncic's 73-point game in 2024 required him to take 33 of his team's 85 shot attempts, Damian Lillard shot 22 threes in his 71-point game in 2023, Devin Booker shot the ball 16 times in the fourth quarter to barely squeak his way to 70 points in 2017, and Joel Embiid shot 23 free throws in 36 minutes in his 70-point game in 2024.
Adebayo's game had a mixture of everything those previous 70-point performances had.
He shot under 50% from the floor and made less than 33% of his threes, but he set a record by going to the free throw line 43 times - his 36 makes at the line is also a record. He finished the game shooting 20-for-43 from the field, 7-for-22 from three, and 36-for-43 from the line.
Prior to Adebayo's game, Dwight Howard's 39 free throw attempts were the most attempted in a single game. That came as part of the "Hack-A-Howard" strategy implemented by the Golden State Warriors as he was a poor free throw shooter.
This game was wildly different. Adebayo is not a poor free throw shooter - the Wizards were never trying to intentionally foul him. In fact, towards the end of the game, they were purposely fouling other Heat players in hopes that Adebayo wouldn't score 80 on their heads.
How did Bam Adebayo score 83 points?
Adebayo scored 31 points in the first quarter and it was clear that the Heat would do everything they could to feed him the ball for the rest of the game.
His first quarter was an unbelievable display of tough shot making. He made five of his seven threes in the first quarter, knocking down difficult contested and moving threes reminiscent to Klay Thompson's record 37-point quarter in 2015.
In the second quarter, Bam put up 12 points in seven minutes with six of those points coming from the free throw line. By halftime, Adebayo had 43 points and had attempted 14 free throws.
He got off to a "slow" start in the third quarter, scoring two points in the first 4:54 of the third, but after nailing a three with seven minutes left in the quarter, the floodgates opened again.
Adebayo scored 17 of his 19 third quarter points in the final seven minutes of the quarter, attempting 13 free throws in that frame.
With his scoring total at 62 points heading into the fourth and the Heat up 16 points, the question of if Bam would get any run in the fourth quarter was looming.
However, coach Erik Spoelstra understood the rare situation and kept Bam in during his usual rest period. This quarter is when things got weird.
The Wizards were triple-teaming Adebayo, suffocating any shot he would take. Adebayo's teammates were trying to force-feed him the ball in the final five minutes of the quarter. Bam only attempted eight shots in the fourth, jacking up wildly contested threes throughout, but he managed to go to the line 16 times.
Five offensive rebounds by the Heat in the quarter led to additional opportunities for Adebayo when the defense was scrambling, and his strategy turned into rim-running and hoping for calls around the basket.
It was a hilarious showing of gamesmanship as the Heat were also fouling the Wizards on purpose to draw out a quarter in which the Heat were leading by 20+ points throughout.
All in all, Adebayo's performance in the early portion of the game was spectacular, and to have the energy and drive to get all the way to 83 points is impressive. In 10+ years, fans will just see the number 83 by his name instead of the 46 free throw attempts.
What were the odds for Bam Adebayo to score 80+ points?
Unfortunately, the trading team at bet365 doesn't even have a theoretical market for something so unexpected.
However, when considering that there has been around 62,000+ games played in NBA history and only three of those ended with a player scoring 80+ points, the probability comes out to around 0.00005% chance of it happening (that's four zeros).
A 0.00005% chance comes out to odds being +199,999,900 odds. Of course, the caliber of player has to be considered as well. Adebayo is an All-Star player who plays around 32 minutes per game. Only around 10-15% of NBA players even have the chance of averaging 32 mins a game.
Someone smarter at math can come up with a formula, but fair odds with no vigorish involved of around +10,000,000 to +15,000,000 seems close to being accurate.
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