MIAMI — Wilt, then Bam.
Bam Adebayo had a night for the ages on Tuesday, finishing second in NBA history in points total behind only Wilt Chamberlain. Adebayo set a league record with 83 points in free throws attempted and attempted in the Miami Heat’s 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards.
“It was a completely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Adebayo opened with 31 points in the first quarter and never stopped. He was up to 43 at halftime and up to 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth. The milestones kept falling despite doubles, triples, and what at one point looked like a quadruple team of a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.
His final numbers are 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line and 7 of 22 from 3-point range. It was a record unlike any other in NBA history, and it was a night like no other for Adebayo.
He cried as he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the court after the game.
A’ja Wilson, Adebayo’s girlfriend and four-time WNBA MVP, wrote on social media: “Welp will no longer have the best of her career at home, but at least it gives me something to pursue.”
Adebayo scored 62 points with a dunk with 22 seconds left in the third quarter, breaking the Heat single-game record of 61 points set by LeBron James on March 3, 2014.
The previous high in the NBA this season was Nikola Jokic’s 56 in Denver’s game against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to score 62 points through three quarters: Kobe Bryant, one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes. He scored exactly the same number of points through the third quarter of a Los Angeles Lakers game against Dallas on December 20, 2005.
He also surpassed Bryant in single-game scoring. Bryant’s career high was 81. It was the second-highest game on the NBA scoring list for 20 years.
And Adebayo only needed the first half to set a career-high.
Adebayo scored 31 points in the first quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat’s all-quarter scoring record and tying the team record for points in a half before the second quarter even began.
He finished the first half with 43 points, a half-time team record and two better than his all-game high of 41 points set against Brooklyn on Jan. 23, 2021.
Entering Tuesday, Adebayo’s season high was 32. He broke the Heat’s first-half scoring record by hitting a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter.
Adebayo has the highest scoring quarter in the NBA in any quarter since Karl-Anthony Towns scored 32 points for Minnesota in the third quarter of a game in San Antonio on March 14, 2022.
Outside of Towns and now Adebayo, only three players have scored at least 31 points per quarter over the past 30 seasons.
— Klay Thompson set an NBA record with 37 points for Golden State in the third quarter against Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2015.
— Kevin Love scored 34 for Cleveland in the first quarter against Portland on Nov. 23, 2016.
— Carmelo Anthony scored 33 points in the third quarter of Denver’s game against Minnesota on December 10, 2008.
The previous Heat record in the first quarter was 25 points by James in Cleveland on March 18, 2014. James recorded the only 25-point quarter in Heat history, part of a team-record 61-point performance against Charlotte.
Before Tuesday, Adebayo had never scored more than 19 points in a quarter.
Adebayo’s 43 first-half points were the second-best in the NBA in at least the last 30 seasons. This dates back to the beginning of the digital play-by-play era, which began with the 1996-97 season.
Towns scored 44 points for Minnesota against Charlotte on Jan. 22, 2024.
The NBA first-half scoring record is 53 points. The record shared by Denver’s David Thompson and San Antonio’s George Gervin is famous for being recorded on the same day, April 9, 1978. That was the final day of the regular season. The two dueled for the league scoring title (albeit in separate games).
