BBNBA: Bam Adebayo gets beat down in Beantown

by:Eric Decker•05/24/22•

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On3 image — Photo by Winslow Townson I Getty Images

In what seems like the theme for the 2022 NBA Playoffs, we all had to suffer through another non-competitive blowout on Monday as Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat went into Game 4 and walked out with a 20-point blowout loss to the Boston Celtics.

Let’s take a look at how it went down.

Adebayo reverts back to struggles

The curious case of Bam Adebayo in the Eastern Conference Finals has been sort of a head scratcher. After putting up only 10 shots total in the first two games, the All-Defensive big man broke out in the third game, going for 31 points and 10 rebounds on 15-22 shooting. Everything seemed to be coming back to normal for Adebayo, that is until he killed nearly all his momentum only a few days later.

In the 102-82 loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday, Adebayo reverted back to being a tertiary character within the scheme of the game. He finished with nine points on only five shots, more worrisome though is that he only grabbed six rebounds and dished out two assists in the loss. It’s a confusing trend, but we may be reaching an answer as to why he’s struggled.

Bam Adebayo when Robert Williams was out:

31 PTS
10 REB
6 AST
4 STL

Bam Adebayo when Robert Williams has played:

8.3 PPG
6.3 RPG
1.6 APG
0 SPG pic.twitter.com/kNzV68gHkX
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 24, 2022

There will be no slander of Robert Williams here. The Time Lord is an elite-caliber defender who has gotten better every day since entering the league. You would love to see Bam be able to do some more damage obviously, but it’s not like he’s going against some scrub defender.

Adebayo’s play wasn’t the only thing bothering BBN last night with that game. Even though he’s been mightily struggling this postseason, Tyler Herro had to miss Game 4 with a groin injury. Luckily, he is fully expected to play in Game 5.