The Miami Heat snapped a two-game winning streak Monday night as they fell to the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-91, in the tail-end of their back to back. While it became a very close game in the fourth quarter, the one aspect fans and others have been questioning is the lack of usage from Heat star Bam Adebayo in the final period where he didn't attempt a single shot.
Funny enough, Adeabayo finished the game tied with a team-high 20 points along with Terry Rozier while also collecting 13 rebounds and recording six assists. He was asked by the media after the game why he didn't attempt a shot in the fourth quarter or go to the free throw line and expressed that there are a lot of variables to it according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“A lot of moving parts to that,” Adebayo said. “But that’s a Spo [Erik Spoelstra] question.”
Erik Spoelstra explains why Adebayo didn't attempt a shot in the fourth
While Adebayo gets most of his effectiveness from the paint, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra would express that the 76ers did a great job of “packing the paint like crazy.” He mentioned how the team resorted to shooting more from the three-point line to make Philadelphia “honest,” making 12 of their 33 attempts from that range or shooting 36.4 percent.
“They were packing the paint like crazy, almost daring us to shoot from the three-point line,” Spoelstra said. “We had to shoot some of those just to keep them honest. Post-ups, there really wasn’t anywhere to go. Elbow catches or any kind of pick-and-roll to throw it back to him, there wasn’t anywhere to go because they were just sending multiple defenders into the paint.”
On the other hand, Adebayo has been a focus since the 26-year old has shown he could end up being a threat from beyond the arch as he has connected on a deep make in four straight games, including the buzzer-beater against the Pistons Sunday. The University of Kentucky product made both of his attempts from three in the loss to the 76ers, but still found a way to make him ineffective in the final period.
Spoelstra talks about how the Heat “struggled to score”
The third quarter for the Heat was detrimental to the rest of the game as they scored 16 total points and while they found juice in the fourth, it was too late. As said before, Rozier scored 20 points, but the Heat were still down a lot of key players in Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson who was injured in the game and the continues absences of Tyler Herro and Kevin Love.
Spoelstra said bluntly to the media after the loss that Miami “struggled” to put the ball in the basket in terms of their late-game offense. While they out-scored the 76ers in the final period, there was still missed opportunities that ended the game in a loss.
“We struggled to score,” Spoelstra said. “We did have some looks. At that point, it becomes make or miss. You have to make those to make the full comeback and we weren’t able to do that. I thought we had a couple clean looks.”
How Miami's loss impacts the standings
Coming into the contest, the game meant a lot in terms of the Eastern Conference standings as the Heat and 76ers were right next to each other as the former was above due to the tiebreakers. Now, Philadelphia is at the sixth seed while Miami is down to eighth as Spoelstra mentioned how much the players “wanted to get this game.”
“Our guys really wanted, obviously, to get this game,” Spoelstra said. “We just weren’t able to get it done. … It’s disappointing. But it’s not from an effort standpoint. Our guys laid it out there.”
With 14 games left in the regular season, every game matters, especially for Miami who will still try to get out of contention for the Play-In tournament, but time is running out. They finish their current four-game road trip Wednesday as they will face the Cleveland Cavaliers before coming back home for four games starting Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
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