While it was a disappointing finish for the Miami Heat Wednesday night as they lost their fourth straight game to the Denver Nuggets, it was a standout game for star big-man Bam Adebayo. It wasn't an easy challenge as besides being one of the main offensive tools for Miami, he had to guard arguably the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic which Erik Spoelstra praised him for doing.
Not a lot of people can say they contained Jokic as he has been averaging 26.2 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game while shooting 58.2 percent from the field. However, Adebayo did just that as he held “The Joker” to just 12 points as Spoelstra said after the game there is no one else in the NBA that will go “toe-to-toe” and “minute-for-minute” against him other than Adebayo.
“Nobody will go toe to toe, minute for minute against Jokic other than Bam. Bam signs up for that and he'll put himself out there and be vulnerable, you know, to the competition. That's the competitor of all competitors,” Spoelstra said. “That just sets the tone and it is difficult, you have to negotiate so many different things. In the post, they started posting up a little bit more and then once you start getting comfortable that go to the two main action, and then you have to do pick and roll basketball…but that's why Bam is bam, that's why I always say year after year that he should be in consideration for defensive player of the year because he can do things and will put himself out there he tried to do things that the majority leave alone because it's easier just to not do it because sometimes you're gonna get beat.”
Erik Spoelstra talks about Bam’s performance against Jokic.
“Nobody will go toe-to-toe, minute-for-minute against Jokic other than Bam…” #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/ObslNkOE6F
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) March 14, 2024
Spoelstra talks about how intricate Jokic and the Nuggets are
Spoelstra would go into detail how intricate and complex the system of the Nuggets is while also expressing how layered Jokic's game is for any player. However, Adebayo made the sacrifices and held the reigning league MVP to his lowest scoring game since Jan. 7.
“Jokic is a great player and sometimes you're going to get scored on or fouled or you have to play your pick and roll defense the ball goes back to him and he scores and somebody else didn't do their job,” Spoelstra said. “Like there's a lot of things that go into it and their a complex team, you feel like you can even have a handle on them. We still held them to 100 you feel like you have a handle on them and then all sudden they can just separate and those skirmishes at this point, they do that, I think better than anybody else in the league.”
Heat's Adebayo talks about the competitiveness facing against Jokic
Despite the loss, Adebayo would finish the game leading the Heat in points and rebounds with 17 and 13 to go along with three assists. He would say after the game that he “lives for the moments” where he is able to “compete against some of the top players in the league.”
“It's competition,” Adebayo said. “You live for moments like that when you're on the biggest stage getting to compete against some of the top players in this league. It's competition at the end of the day. You go out there, you toss the ball up and see who wins.”
While it was an exceptional performance from Adebayo, the Heat still eventually lost the NBA Finals rematch and dropped their fourth straight. Miami is now 35-30 on the season which puts them eighth in the Eastern Conference and with 17 games left, there is no room for error as now the team starts a four-game road trip starting Friday against the Detroit Pistons.
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