With all of the opportunity to shine already at his hands, Bam Adebayo fully understands that he took things for granted and went on to underperform disappointingly for the Miami Heat.
As such, he can only acknowledge his shortcomings on why the Heat failed to take care of business in Game 2, coming up short against the New York Knicks, 111-105.
“I just gotta play better. I felt like this game was on me. I lost it for us, so I gotta be better. My play looked terrible,” said Adebayo.
“I put this on me.”
As Jimmy Butler was announced unavailable to play because of a sprained ankle, all eyes within the Heat camp have expected that Adebayo would anchor them heading to the Tuesday matchup and lead the club for an empathic 2-0 Conference Semis edge.
But it turned out opposite to what they had initially viewed, as the All-Star big went passive against the imposing enforcers of the Knicks. Adebayo finished the matchup with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting while grabbing just eight boards.
New York unleashed their top frontcourt units in Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and Isaiah Hartenstein and proceeded to dominate the paint, combining for 26 total boards in the team’s 50 collective rebounds.
With Adebayo being unaggressive, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, and Max Strus led the way for the club, as all of their undrafted contributors recorded a historic mark.
“Our guys can’t wait for Saturday [Game 3],” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It can’t happen soon enough to get out there and compete again.”
