Miami’s Bam Adebayo Scores 83 Points in Win Over Washington

There had been only two players in NBA history to score more than 80 points in a single game. Those players were Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 on March 2nd, 1962, and Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 on January 22nd, 2006. Now there are three.

You might have thought that if any current player would score 80 points again it might be someone like Luka Doncic, who scored 73 on January 26th, 2004, or prolific scorers like James Harden or Stephen Curry. But in the Miami Heat’s game versus Washington on March 10th, it was Bam Adebayo who scored 83 for Miami to lead the Heat to a 150-129 win over the Wizards.

Adebayo, who is a center, is an excellent overall player, who has averaged 16.1 points per game in his career so far, with a career high 20.4 in 2022-23. His previous career high in a single game was 41 set in 2021. (Chamberlain averaged 30.1 points per game and Bryant 25.0 over their careers). But he was unbelievable in this game, with 20 field goals (including seven three pointers) and an NBA record 36 free throws.

Adebayo played 42 minutes, as he was kept in the game to see if he could pass Kobe. The win was the sixth in a row for Miami, who host Milwaukee on March 12th.