The Miami Heat have cooled off over the last few games as the basketball world still tries to make sense of Bam Adebayo's recent 83-point game, the second most in NBA history. While some have celebrated the accomplishment, which moved him past Kobe Bryant and only behind Wilt Chamberlain in the record books, others have sought to detract from Adebayo's accomplishment by pointing out some of the bizarre tactics Miami used to help him reach the mark.
One person who falls into the latter camp is former NBA guard Austin Rivers, who recently took to The Ryen Russillo Show to issue a challenge to Adebayo.
“If you score more than 30 against [Victor Wembanyama]. It will just be as impressive to me as you getting [83] points… I'll tip my hat more than you getting [83] against the f*****g Wizards,” said Rivers, per The Ryen Russillo Show on X, formerly Twitter.
Adebayo will have a chance to do just that on Monday night when the Heat host Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
The Heat are in a very difficult stretch of schedule at the current juncture, losers of four straight games, and falling into play-in territory in the Eastern Conference as a result. Adebayo put up a monster game of 32 points and 21 rebounds over the weekend against the Houston Rockets, but Miami lost at the last second when Amen Thompson tipped in a Kevin Durant miss at the buzzer.
Adebayo had a big game against the Spurs earlier this year on the road, and he will likely need to have a similar output this time around in order to get Miami back in the win column against a San Antonio team that has been dominant in recent weeks.
Tipoff between the Heat and Spurs is set for 7:00 pm ET.
