Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game Was Bad TV (and Bad Basketball)

Congratulations to Bam Adebayo on scoring 83 points against the Washington Wizards last night. I guess.

Adebayo, who is (now) averaging 20 points per game this season (18.5 prior to last night) and 16.1 PPG over his nine-year career, all with the Miami Heat, scored the second-most points ever in an NBA game, passing Kobe Bryant‘s 81-point masterpiece 2006 and settling in behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s storied 100-point game in 1962. It is a hell of an accomplishment — except for the parts where it was kind of pathetic.

In 42 minutes on a random Tuesday night in March, Adebayo shot a meh 20-43 (46.5 percent) from the field and made a meh 7-of-22 (31.8 percent) three-point attempts. On Bryant’s own historic night, in which he scored two points fewer than Adebayo’s sum, the Los Angeles Lakers legend shot 60.1 percent from the field and 53.8 percent from downtown. Thus far, the math isn’t mathing.

Adebayo’s 83 was only made possible by an absurd number of foul calls against the 6’9″ center, serving two purposes: 1) It handed Bam a new NBA record for free-throw attempts (43), and 2) It stretched the game beyond a natural number of possessions, providing Adebayo with additional scoring opportunities.

Sinking 36 of 43 (83.7 percent) from the line is no gimme, especially for a guy who, on average, has made about three of every four for his career. Adebayo had a good night at the charity stripe, but him being there 43 times was exactly that: charity. Bryant, by the way, sunk 18 of 20 free throws in netting 81, a 90 percent make rate.

Adebayo is a very good player who had a career night, and his does deserve his flowers. Prior to Tuesday, Adebayo, a three-time NBA All-Star center, had never scored more than 41 points. Then again, he had never taken more than 27 shots from the field, never attempted more than 13 three pointers and had never gone to the line more than 20 times in a single NBA game. Last night wasn’t just an anomaly, to some extent, it was a manufactured performance. I call foul, and I’m not alone.

Robert Horry, who played seven seasons with Bryant on the Lakers, had a similar take.

“Let me just say this: 83 points is impressive, but it gets to a point you have to respect the game,” he said on his Spectrum SportsNet show. “And I think there was moments in this game where it was not respected. But still though, 83 points is a lot. I appreciate the effort. And this is gonna go down as the second most in the game, but it’s you always say certain things should have an asterisk by it. I’m putting an asterisk by this one.”

Not only was Washington called for a suspicious number of bams on Adebayo (especially late, when 81 was in sight), in an obvious attempt to stop the clock and hand Adebayo more offensive opportunities, the Heat began to purposely foul the Wizards — in a game they were winning by more than 20 points! They hacked the game clock for the ‘Gram, basically. It was not a good look, it was certainly not good basketball and it was not good TV.

Fortunately for America, a solid Heat team hosting a dismal Wizards one on a Tuesday in March was never going to be nationally televised (beyond NBA League Pass, which shows every game). Rather, the game only dragged ass on FanDuel Sports Network Sun (broadcasting regionally in South Florida), and on the Wizards’ local broadcast. As if Wizards fans haven’t suffered enough.

FDSN will have TV ratings for the Adebayo game on Friday, The Hollywood Reporter is told.

As I write this, the public perception of Adebayo’s big game is still being formed. Mostly, it’s confusion. The player doesn’t make sense, the stat line isn’t clean and the demotion of the late, great Kobe Bryant … well, that just feels bad.

While no one would argue that Chamberlain’s 100-point game was pure, Kobe’s 81 was. On Jan. 22, 2006, with the Lakers down 14 points to the Toronto Raptors at halftime, Bryant exploded for 55 points in the second half, willing his team to a win. His greatness that night just ended up equaling 81 points, whereas Adebayo, who scored a mammoth 31 points in the first quarter on actual good shooting, his coach and his teammates — and possibly even the other team — saw an opportunity and calculated the way to get there. Not exactly “Mamba Mentality.”

If only Kobe Bryant were alive to see this NBA…