Bam Adebayo erupts for 83 points in Heat’s win over Wizards, passes Kobe Bryant for second-highest scoring game history
Something got into Bam Adebayo on Tuesday night.
The Miami Heat star dropped a historic 83 points in the team’s 150-129 blowout win over the Washington Wizards in what was a ridiculous offensive performance at the Kesaya Center.
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Adebayo’s 83 points were the second-most scored by a player in a single game in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain, thanks to his 100-point game in 1962, has scored more in a single contest. Adebayo also surpassed former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who dropped 81 points in a single game in 2006.
“Man, I wish I could relive it twice,” Adebayo said on the court. “I credit God, my family and my teammates, this crowd.”
It was just the 16th 70-point game in NBA history, and the first since Luka Dončić did so with the Dallas Mavericks in 2024. Adebayo is just the 11th player in league history to record a 70-point game, and he is one of just six active players to do so. It also easily gave him the highest scoring game from any player in the league so far this season, surpassing the 56-points that Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić dropped on Christmas Day.
“Obviously, it’s one of the top three performances of all time,” he said when asked what it was like to be alongside Chamberlain and Bryant in the record book.
Bam Adebayo drops 83 points in historic outing
After a 31-point opening quarter, Adebayo entered halftime with 43 points to his name and a statline that would have been incredibly impressive for an entire contest. He shot 13-of-24 from the field and made five 3-pointers in the first 24 minutes. Adebayo’s previous career high was 41 points, so that feat was already accomplished before he hit the locker room.
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Naturally, Adebayo accounted for much of the team’s offense in the first half. They carried a 14-point lead into the third quarter, and Simone Fontecchio was the only other player to hit double figures — he had 11 points — in the first half. No other player had more than three made field goals, and Adebayo accounted for nearly two-thirds of the team’s made 3-pointers. His 43 points were the most points scored in any half by a player in Heat history.
But perhaps the biggest moment of the first half was a massive two-handed dunk that Adebayo threw down through Wizards center Alex Sarr.
Adebayo didn’t slow down in the second half, either. He surpassed Jokić’s mark midway through the third quarter with a pair of free throws, which got him to 58 points on the night. He ended the third quarter with 62 points, and kept the Heat well out in front.
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Adebayo’s final points of the third quarter, which he got on a breakaway one-handed dunk, broke the franchise single-game scoring record previously set by LeBron James and matched Bryant’s play-by-play era scoring record through three periods.
Though it almost certainly wasn’t needed, Adebayo started the fourth quarter and kept right on going. He hit the 70-point mark while fighting to the rim and powering in a layup through contact with more than nine minutes left in the game.
Adebayo passed Chamberlain’s second-best outing with a pair of free throws with about two minutes left on the clock. He then hit two more free throws, his 33rd and 34th of the night, to match Bryant’s 81-point outing.
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But Adebayo didn’t stop there, either. He kept attacking, and drew another foul with 1:16 left in the game to surpass Bryant’s mark from the stripe. With 83 points in the books, head coach Eric Spoelstra finally pulled Adebayo from the contest.
While he could have at any point, Spoelstra said he “for damn sure” wasn’t going to take Adebayo out of the game until the very end.
“This one just kind of snuck up on us. It snuck up on all of us,” Spoelstra said. “Once it just kept on going, we knew we possibly could be a part of something really special. Didn’t really think it would necessarily be historic until he got to 70 … Then you’re caught up in the moment like everyone else, and I didn’t want to get in the way.”
Adebayo finished shooting 20-of-43 from the field and 7-of-22 from the 3-point line. Adebayo’s 22 attempted 3-pointers tied the third-most in a single game in NBA history. He went 36-of-43 from the free throw line, too, which shattered the previous record of 28 made free throws in a single game that was set by Adrian Dantley back in 1984. The 43 attempted free throws was also an NBA record.
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Though they couldn’t keep up with Adebayo, the Wizards still put up 129 points and shot 52% from the field. Sarr led the way with 28 points, and Will Riley added 22 points and five rebounds. That was the first time in franchise history that the Wizards have ever had 70 points or more scored on them.
Adebayo entered the night averaging 18.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game this season, his ninth with the Heat. The win for the Heat marked their sixth straight and got them to 37-29 this season.
While Adebayo has accomplished a lot throughout his career so far, including a pair of trips to the NBA Finals, he didn’t hesitate as to where the outing ranked for him.
“No. 1 for sure. For sure, No. 1,” he said. “To be able to do it at home makes it even more sweeter.”
