Miami Heat of America star, Bam Adebayo was in top form for his side and helped them return to winning ways in their last game of 2020, against Giannis Adetokunbo’s Milwaukee Bucks in USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) league.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Adebayo hit 22 points, as The Heat engineered a 58-point turnaround against Adetokunbo (Antetokounmpo) and The Bucks, just 24 hours after the side from Milwaukee dumped their rivals from Miami in a blow out result.
However, Adebayo’s form and spirited efforts from his Miami teammates helped them avenge the embarrassing record loss they suffered on Tuesday, and The Heat bounced back to winning ways just in time for buoyant celebrations heading into the new year.
Goran Dragic scored 26 points off the bench, Adebayo also finished with 10 assists and eight rebounds, as The Heat beat The Bucks 119-108 on Wednesday night – one day after Milwaukee made an NBA-record 29 3-pointers on the way to a 47-point romp on Miami’s home floor.
The story was, however, different 24 hours later, as Tyler Herro scored 21 points and grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds for Miami, which trailed by 14 early in the second half and rallied to get a split of the two-game, two-night series against the team that finished with the NBA’s best record in each of the past two regular seasons.
Antetokounmpo had a triple-double – 26 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists – for the Bucks. Donte DiVincenzo scored 15 and Jrue Holiday 13 for Milwaukee, while Khris Middleton was held to eight on 3-for-15 shooting, while Avery Bradley scored 16 and Kelly Olynyk had 15 for Miami.
Milwaukee’s lead was 72-58 early in the second half, 84-73 with 3:44 left in the third. It was all Miami from there, with the Heat – who were without Jimmy Butler for a second straight game because of a sprained right ankle – outscoring the Bucks 40-15 over the next 12 minutes.
One of the game’s major highlights saw Brook Lopez, arguing that Adebayo flopped for a foul in the first half, theatrically fell to the court before the Nigerian-born lad took the ensuing free throws, while Pat Connaughton scored 12 and Bobby Portis had 11 for Milwaukee.
Another Nigerian-born player, Andre Iguodala got his first start with The Heat, meaning for the 17th consecutive year – 2004 through 2020 – he has started at least one game; but he could not save his side from giving up 21 points in the first 4:15 on the way to a 144-97 loss.
That was despite Adebayo helping his side set a tone, as The Heat gave up four in the first 4:15, as they finished 2020 at 36-29 (22-22 regular season, 14-7 playoffs), while Milwaukee ended the calendar year 33-20 (28-15 regular season, 5-5 playoffs).
Miami outscored The Bucks 15-3 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter to exert a revenge result against Milwaukee, who are now 2-3 this season, as against 24-3 at the start of the past campaign, but missed 25 of 34 shots on Wednesday.
Antetokounmpo said afterwards: ”Got to figure ourselves out as a team. We’re going to be consistent … At the end of the day, we’re going to play our game, going to find open shots and hope they fall.”
Bucks’ coach, Mike Budenholzer added: “We need to be more consistent. We need to be better. But I think there’s positives. We’ve played well for big stretches of games. We’ve just got to extend those.”
