Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat, despite a gritty 87-82 win over the Indiana Pacers, remain below .500 on the season. With a 13-15 record, the Heat are lumped with around six other teams in the quest for an automatic playoff berth instead of a trip to the play-in. Thus, the Heat will be plenty motivated to win their next few games, and there may be no better time to do so, as they would soon face three of the worst teams in the Western Conference in the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs.
However, Adebayo knows that there is no such thing as a free win in the NBA.
Speaking with reporters after the game, Bam Adebayo revealed his mindset when asked how cautious the Heat must be lest they fall into one of those dreaded trap games.
“You can't look at their records. They're still in the NBA. That's the bottomline,” Adebayo said. “You can't look at it like that. As you can see, we dropped two [against the Detroit Pistons and Spurs in recent weeks] so you can't look at it like that. They're still in the NBA.”
"They're still in the NBA."
Bam Adebayo doesn't want the HEAT to look at the upcoming opponents' records as they move forward on this road trip, just at themselves@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/V7AZsxVDbo
— Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun (@BallySportsFL) December 13, 2022
It's no surprise that Bam Adebayo has this professional a mindset. For the Heat's sake, they would hope that they could carry over this “appropriate fear” (a term coined by Gregg Popovich back in the day) into this three-game road-trip, as this is a golden opportunity to make up ground in the congested Eastern Conference.
Adebayo, for his part, has been solid in recent games, including a 22-point, 17-board performance against the Pacers on Monday night. He has, by and large, answered the call when the Heat need him, particularly defensively, and he will need to continue this level of play for the Heat to rise even further atop the standings.
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