Bam Adebayo is the X-factor for the Miami Heat to beat the Boston Celtics

The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics have a lot of things in common entering the Eastern Conference Finals. Bam Adebayo is not one of them.

The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics have a lot of things in common entering the Eastern Conference Finals. They both have versatile wings who can score and defend. They both have veteran point guards who haven’t had much prior playoff success. They have great coaches. They both have front offices that have assembled title-winning teams in the past. What separates these two teams is one player, Bam Adebayo.

On the Locked On Heat Podcast and Locked On Celtics Podcast crossover episode, hosts David Ramil and John Karalis discussed why Bam Adebayo is the key for Miami to beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

John Karalis: I think the Bam Adebayo matchup is the biggest thing… I think Bam and Jae Crowder are two keys. Bam is obviously going to be tough to guard. It makes Kanter again probably unplayable because I can't imagine how much they would attack Kanter because he has to drop so much and pick and rolls. So he has to drop, but you still have the ability to go over the top to Bam even if Kanter drops, so he's out.

Theis has had a propensity to foul. In Boston we call it the War on Theis

David Ramil. I saw that.

John Karalis: They see every single foul that he commits, somehow, some way; he doesn't get away with anything. So that is going to be something that he has to avoid. And I don't know if that's going to make him tentative, but he has to be able to get up there and defend, but defend those roles and defend him at the rim.

But with Bam, it's just gonna be like everything else. It's gonna take more than one guy to defend this Miami Heat team. It's gonna take more than one guy to defend Bam Adebayo, because of all the versatile things that he can do. He can initiate the offense, he brings the ball off the court. That's a lot you're asking a lot of, of Daniel Theis to cover him and then you got to throw a different look at him, maybe with Robert Williams. But even I don't know how Robert Williams is gonna fare because Bam is strong. So then you have to put Grant Williams in there, who is a rookie and strong enough maybe to deal with Bam, but not quick and Bam is quick so, and he's taller, he can shoot over the top of Grant Williams. So it's going to take a lot of help to really try to neutralize him.