HEAT PLAYOFF PUSH: Bam Adebayo's Record-Breaking Night PROPELS Miami Past Nets, Chasing 6th Seed

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I'm Wes Goldberg, host of Locked-On NBA Daily and Real GM Radio, doing a solo post game show for you today from a room at the bottom of Kaseyah Center, recording this after the heat's win over the Nets on Tuesday night.

We've got credit cookies in the oven, listen our questions to get to, but look, easy win for the Miami Heat, a business like win, exactly what they needed to do against a tanky tank, type of Brooklyn Nets team that is actively trying to lose games.

They got an early lead, they did not let it go, no drama, nothing interesting, no excitement, no stress, they cruise to a win.

We got a lot of Jamir Young and Myron Gardner minutes at the end, we could just put it that way.

But look, we're monitoring the margins here on Locked-On Heat, it's been a big conversation recently here on the show and the heat won the margin battles.

Tonight, offensive rebounding, they out, offensive rebounding, the Brooklyn Nets 14-10 that created 17 second chance points for Miami.

They forced 18 turnovers, which led to 20 points off of turnovers, that was a big margin battle for the heat.

They outshot them from three point range, but as we've talked about here on the show, the heat can't rely on three pointers.

You've got to win the margin battles, whether it's against bad teams, tanking teams like the Brooklyn Nets or good teams.

Again, it is something that we're monitoring here as we make this playoff push and we get closer to the post season.

The heat are not good enough to win a lot of these games, they should be good enough to win this game against Brooklyn regardless of the margin battles.

But this is how you take care of businesses, right? When you hear business like win in the NBA, what does that really mean?

Does it mean that you shoot 48% from three and you just beat a bad team? No, that's not what that means, that's variance.

That happens throughout an 82 game season, that's not really taking care of business.

When you hear the phrase, taking care of business in the NBA, that's what that looks like.

You're the bigger team, the more talented team, the more physical team, you're the healthier team.

These are the margins that you should win, the physical margins.

We're going to play harder than you and that's how we're going to go about our business and the heat did that tonight.

They played with that level of physicality and I want to give credit to two players specifically for setting the tone for that physicality.

Bam out of bio and Tyler Hero.

Now, more on Tyler Hero a little bit later, I want to start with Bam because to me, he was the player of the game.

You want to give a game ball to somebody in Miami, give it to Bam.

Number one, because big accomplishment for him passes Udana's Haslum for number one all time in heat history in defensive rebounding with more than 4,100 defensive rebounds.

A great accomplishment for Bam as he gets closer to the overall rebounding number which Haslum has publicly had some fun with talking about how he doesn't want.

Bam, to get that and Bam kind of going at him publicly, this is something that's real.

I could tell you it's not just something that I think was on the Amazon Prime broadcast that they're just doing for TV.

This is a real back and forth we've heard it in practices when Haslum was part of the team.

Even when Haslum retired and is still around the team after practices or enduring practices here in Miami.

This is something that Bam really wants and I think it's something that Udana's Haslum is actively not looking forward to because that sort of Haslum's thing.

Haslum was the undrafted guy who scrapped and clawed his way to every single shred of playing time and therefore every rebound that he did get, that's his record and Bam is going to break it.

It's just a matter of when and not if.

And tonight was a major milestone in accomplishing that number one all time in defensive rebounding and heat history.

But that's not necessarily what I want to talk about with Bam today is as great of a record as that is and he does deserve the shout out for it.

I want to talk about his defense in this one.

And specifically the awards and the recognition that goes along with that.

Bam's all defensive team, I don't know if you remember, but Bam's all defensive team was streak was snapped last season.

And you know, I don't know that Bam turned in his best defensive season of his career last year.

But I also know that he probably should have been first or probably should have been second team all defense last year as a refresher.

Here's who was on the first team and who was on the second team all defense last year.

Your first team was Dyson Daniels, Lou Dort, Dre Mondgreen, Evan Mobile, and Amin Thompson.

The seasons that those players have had last year, you can't really take any of those guys off of first team.

They were all sensational.

Second team was Tomani Kamara, Rudy Gobaer, Jaron Jackson Jr., Jalen Williams, and Avicia Zubach.

I thought Zubach had a case for first team all defense. He ends up being second team.

Rudy Gobaer is kind of like Bam where you just assume that he's going to be on one of these teams every single year.

Gobaer made it, Bam did not.

I didn't think it was Gobaer's best defensive season. I think I did have Bam over Gobaer on my fake ballot last year.

Kamara was sensational, but Bam made a point at the end of the game in the post game media session tonight.

He thinks that the criteria has changed, and he mentioned specifically guys on losing teams, non-playoff teams, making all defensive teams.

He thinks that a player on losing teams shouldn't necessarily qualify based on what he was saying in the post game.

I think he's talking about a guy like Tomani Kamara, who was playing for a bad Portland team last year.

I think he deserved to be on it, but I would have probably had Bam on my second team.

Maybe over Jalen Williams or over Jalen Jackson Jr., over Gobaer or Kamara.

I think you could have made a case for any. Bam was right there with all those guys.

All those guys were great in deserving of second team, but I think you could have made the case for Bam over or instead of any of those guys on the second team.

That said, the streak was snapped.

He made first team in 2023-24. He made second team in 2023.

Second team in 2022. He was second team in 2021.

He was second team in 2020, and that was the beginning of the streak there.

He's only got one first team. He's only been on first team all defense once, which was in 2024.

I think there probably should have been more in there, and I think he should definitely be on all defense this year.

Like I said, I thought he set the tone early in this game.

Four steals in the first quarter for Bam in this one.

I thought he ate Nick Clackston's lunch in this game on both ends of the court, but specifically defensively, he didn't allow anything.

Miami's defense was great all night long. Now look, it's the Brooklyn Nets. You don't want to make too much of it, but this was a top-notch Bam defensive game.

If you want reasons to vote Bam, all defensive team or whatever like that, turn the film on.

There's a lot of games that you can turn the film on, but this would be one of them that I would direct people towards.

Look, in setting the tone for this one though, you go back to the business like theme here, right?

What does that look like? It means setting the tone early with the physicality, being the better team, being the more physical team, being the more talented team, being the healthier team, being the stronger team.

Bam set the tone for that.

They clearly want to avoid the play in tournament.

And that is the goal for this week, right?

You play the tanky Brooklyn Nets twice on Tuesday and Thursday, and then you get Charlotte on Friday.

So you got two chances, easy chances for wins here, Tuesday and Thursday.

And then the second line of back-to-back on Charlotte with a chance to build ground on Charlotte, get another division win, which is important.

And you know, a good win as he tried to move up the standings here.

I asked Eric Spolster about, you know, using that as motivation, right?

You obviously want to take care of this against Brooklyn and go into that game again, Charlotte on Friday night with some momentum.

But we've heard Bam and Tyler talk about this recently.

How this team does not want to be back in the play in tournament.

That they're frustrated that are even in this situation to begin with.

Eric Spolster, we've heard him over the years.

And especially this year, talk about, hey, we can't get caught looking at the standings.

We got to take care of our business.

You know, coach speak typical stuff.

But I asked him, you know, how do you balance the not looking at the standings with using this as real motivation?

And he said, it should serve as motivation.

And I hope that it does.

And I thought in this game, it clearly did.

The heat with this win worth noting here.

They are going to.

They are now one game behind Philadelphia, one loss behind Philadelphia in the lost column for that six seed.

Philadelphia lost to the spurs tonight.

They did not have Joe and beat in that game.

They got wiped away by San Antonio.

So now Miami inches closer to Philly for that six seed very much in range.

And you look at the schedule right now that's facing all of these teams at the heater.

Dylan with here fighting for positioning in the standings with Miami.

They have Brooklyn on Thursday.

Charlotte on the second night, the second night of a back-to-back on Friday.

Then it's Detroit and Washington.

That's their next four games.

Look at Philly.

They've got Utah, Atlanta at Cleveland Memphis.

Now, Joe and beat missed the sixers practice a couple days ago.

He's.

They're reporting increased soreness with his injury on his right side.

He's been dealing with the rib stuff basically since they played the heat.

That's something to monitor here, right?

Philly against Utah, Atlanta, Cleveland Memphis.

You would assume that they would go at least three and one potentially even four and oh against that slate.

But if beat's going to miss time, maybe they can like could Philly lose to Cleveland and another game in there somewhere.

Could they go two and two while Miami goes three and one?

Miami has to beat Brooklyn on Thursday just like they took care of business tonight.

And they have to beat Charlotte on Friday.

So can Miami go at least three and one over their next three games?

Maybe losing to Detroit, beat Washington, right?

That's what you would presume.

Philly, can you go two and two in that stretch?

And then Orlando is right there too.

We should mention them there right now in seventh, Miami in eighth in the standings.

Orlando can easily go one and three in there next four.

You look at their schedule.

Dallas, Minnesota.

They play Milwaukee on the second night of a back-to-back.

The honest is back for them.

And then they play Cleveland.

So Orlando also dealing with their own injuries to Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs is in and out.

That's a team that could easily go one and three during that stretch.

So these next four games are really big for the heat.

And we are standings watching or watching the standings rather here on Locked on Heat.

We're going to talk about this game a little bit more.

I've got credit cookies in the oven.

We're going to hand them out next.

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Well, that's another by me win, which means it's time for the tasty segment of Locked on Heat at his time to hand out credit cookies.

I get the honor of handing out these cookies today.

I've got ten cookies to give out.

I'm going to start with Bam Atabaya.

We talked about him in the first segment, setting the tone in this one, a sublime performance for Bam.

He gets four credit cookies for this game.

Matches the amount of steals he had in the first quarter.

It's not necessarily why I did it.

Just a coincidence.

Four steals in the first quarter on his way to six steals overall.

But I don't want to go away from the defense here for a second.

He had a spin move in transition early in this game that reminded me of like peak athletic Toronto Raptors Pascal.

I remember we called him spicy peony at that spin move that he would always hit in transition.

Bam hit that entry.

I don't know what happened to Bam since the all star break, but he's just like going into his bag of tricks.

Like every other game right now and just showing him like a kind of a quasi dream shake the other night or against Atlanta.

I think in the first game back from the all star break, he's doing things in the post against Memphis in the second game from the all star break.

He's breaking out the spin move in this one.

I like it.

I'm here for it.

Obviously, I don't want Bam to just be this guy who's forced to take threes in this new offense.

Him getting out in transition is huge.

I thought his transition game offensively was so impressive in this game.

Not just the spin move in transition flashbacks of spicy pee stuff.

He had two really nice little kick a kick a head passes in transition.

One to Wiggins and one to Hawkeyes in this game.

Playmaking in transition scoring in transition.

This is the stuff that you want to see from Bam.

We know his limitations in the half court, right?

He's, you know, a streaky shooter from three point range.

That mid range shot, you don't want to be over reliant on it the way that he was a couple seasons ago where it felt like every shot he was taking was that free throw line jumper.

He's still got it, right?

He could still get to that one he needs to.

But without the pick and without the pick and roll in this offense, his ability to get to the rim in the half court has been blunted a little bit.

But this is the way to make up for that, right?

You force opportunities to get in transition and then you run in transition.

Six steals led to real points for Bam and for his teammates for the Miami Heat in this game.

You love to see it.

But you go back to what he did defensively in this game, setting the tone.

He was switching what he needed to.

He was locking down Brooklyn centers like Nick Claxton after a really nice year, a couple years ago, is pretty much falling off.

Bam ate his lunch in this game.

Man, like this wasn't even close.

Claxton was a minus 19.

Bam was a plus 22.

There you go.

I don't always use plus minus for a qualitative analysis here, but that tells you the story of how the game went, right?

The Brooklynettes could not win their minutes with their starting center on the court and Miami dominated their minutes with their starting center on the court.

Bam was clearly, I thought the best two-way player in the game tonight.

It's why he gets the most credit cookies with four and I said it in the first segment.

If you want to play the film on a reason why Bam deserves a spot on one of these all defensive teams, you can cue this one up if you want.

There's other games that you can obviously queue up.

I think Bam is having a sensational defensive season.

There was a point where I thought he should be in the running for defensive player of the year, although as long as Wembee is going to qualify,

it looks like it's going to be his going away.

I looked at Fandall's odds right before I started recording here.

Bam's like far off the board.

He's not even a guy here.

So whatever, I guess it's not going to be Bam's year for D.P.O.I.

But he should be a clear sort of automatic for all defensive team.

I hope he gets it.

We're going to talk about it more on this episode on this show.

More people start talking about it more.

But look, if you look up a Bam game in the dictionary, it might look like this one.

Wasn't a loud game for him offensively, right?

23 points was good on 11-24 shooting, so it wasn't the most efficient shooting night for him.

Zero free throw attempt, so I would have liked to see him get to the line a little bit more.

But he didn't get to the line a ton in this one.

24 free throw attempts overall as a team.

And Bam, like I said, he did a lot of his work in transition

where there just wasn't really guys around him to foul him.

So that's fine.

One of seven from three point range, which wasn't my favorite.

But if you take away the threes, we're talking about a 10 of 17 night from two point range.

And that's quite good.

That's a good efficiency.

He was playmaking right with the four assists.

This was just a two way, not overly loud, not overly dominant.

But just a controlled tempo setting game from Bam.

If you look up a Bam game in the dictionary, it's going to look very similar to this one.

Next guy getting credit cookies, Tyler Hero.

Two credit cookies for Tyler Hero.

I enjoyed this game.

It was not the best Tyler Hero game, but I enjoyed this one from him.

22 points on 8-15 shooting.

104 from three point range.

Tyler talking about this at the end of the game.

About how that three ball hasn't really come around.

He hasn't really found his rhythm in that since he came back from injury.

And anecdotally, I kind of just nodded my head and agreed when he was talking about it.

Sposed talking about it too.

Then it looked at Tyler Hero shooting 38% from three since he came back.

It's not like he's been bad from three point range.

I do think what we're seeing is the lack of quantity.

He's not doing it in volume.

He is clearly not comfortable with those catch and shoot threes right now in this offense.

And with his rhythm coming back from right.

He's been dealing with the foot thing, the rib injuries, all that stuff.

But for whatever reason, he's very comfortable getting to the basket.

And that's why I said I enjoyed this game from Tyler.

7-11 on twos.

I loved his drive game in this game.

He obviously got to the floaters, but there was a number of drives where he got all the way to the basket.

Trying to draw contact, did draw contact.

I thought he, I thought the refs kind of fun with a couple of calls for him for him in this game.

I thought he could have gotten to the line a couple more times in this game.

But overall, really, I mentioned how both Bam and Tyler Hero set the tone for this game and the physicality that I thought Miami played with.

And I think hero offensively with the way that he was driving to the basket.

Only 4-3 point attempts for hero in this game.

Bam at 7.

Only 4-3 point attempts for hero in this game.

He clearly made a decision to get to the basket.

And I thought that was evident early on.

It was also a reminder that he's a legitimate three level score.

It does not need to rely on threes.

And like I said, he sat after the game just wait until the three ball goes in.

And when he starts feeling a lot more comfortable with that.

And again, I think there is some rhythm stuff with this offense that requires him to take those early catch and shoot threes.

The heat coaching staff, by the way, has talked to Tyler Hero.

They're pointing out heroes watching the film.

They're finding spots where he can take those catch and shoot threes early in the shot clock where heroes passed up a few of those over the last few games.

They want him to take those.

They're trying to get him to take those.

I think heroes are going to get there.

Just a reminder, he did not participate in training camp when they were installing this offense.

So this offense is newer to him than it is for everybody else.

I think he's still figuring parts of this offense out and specifically picking his spots.

But as much as that has maybe been an uphill climb here and there's been a learning curve there.

He was really quick to make decisions in terms of, you know, putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket.

And again, I love seeing that level of aggression from Tyler Hero.

It helps set the tone for Miami.

Their physicality on the offensive end.

Andrew Wiggins is going to get a credit cookie.

Just the one, not a loud night, but an important night.

I thought for Andrew Wiggins.

And what I'm giving him the points for, like we could look at the box where he had 13 points on 59 shooting.

Had the two offensive rebounds.

I love monitoring Wiggins' offensive rebounds.

Seven rebounds overall.

Had three blocks in this game as well.

So I liked the overall defensive game from Wiggins.

What I appreciated the most from him and why he's getting this cookie though.

He played the Nile defense on Michael Porter Jr. from the jump.

This was not just typical, hey, MPJ can catch it, but I'm going to close out.

I'm going to play tight on him.

I'm not going to let him get off open threes.

Wiggins was playing the Nile defense face guarding him.

A lot of this game.

And you look at the game that Michael Porter Jr. had.

Three of 17 shooting.

When 0 for 9 from 3 point range.

And I would say probably all mine of those were contested.

I don't remember an open one that he got.

I could be missing one.

I could be forgetting one.

But he was really bad in this game.

And look, this was a blowout win, right?

But it was a blowout win in part because they didn't allow Michael Porter Jr.

Who was a bubble all star this year to pop off, right?

If if Michael Porter Jr. pops off, this could get, this game could have gotten interesting.

And because of Wiggins and the way that he was guarding MPJ and this one, they didn't allow him to get it.

So it wasn't allowed night.

It's not going to show up in the box score necessarily on the Wiggins part of it.

But I thought it was an important night for Wiggins overall.

I think is very deserving of that credit cookie.

Moving on to Jaime Haka Jr.

He's getting two credit cookies in this game.

20 points for him off the bench with two for three on threes.

And then Kalawair is going to get one credit cookie.

I'm going to talk about him more in the next segment up and down game for him.

But overall came away impressed.

We're going to talk about that.

Plus get this from our listener questions on the other side.

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Thanks for making Locked On Heat your first listen every day back here to finish up our credit cookie segment.

Get one credit cookie.

Up and down game for him picks up a three thousand twenty two seconds early in the game, but I thought he bounced back well.

Was a net positive overall finishes with five steals and seven offensive rebounds.

Those are my two favorite stats from him in this game.

And two plays that stand out as it relates to the steals and the offensive rebounds.

I don't want to talk about here.

Clowware makes a leaping steal in the fourth quarter that uses his entire wingspan to sort of uncoils.

Brooklyn was trying to make a cross court pass.

Where is somewhere near the free throw line and just jumps up and grabs the ball.

It leads to a bam out of my layup and transition.

And one of the reasons I love that play in particular is because we don't really see.

Situations where bam and where interact a ton on the floor.

If that makes a lot of sense, like they're playing together more, but they're not really playing off of each other, right?

Like offensively this team doesn't run high low actions and defensively, right?

Like they communicate in their part of the zone together in the back line and all that stuff.

But this was one of those rare instances where you actually saw where do something a game changing type of play.

That made bam out of bio better, right?

We don't really see that a ton either way, right?

We don't really see bam lead to where points or something that where does lead to band points.

And that's one of the reasons I love that play.

The other play that I loved again, it was a bam and where play here.

Earlier in the game, bam gets a steal, goes coast to coast, goes to finish for the layup, misses the layup.

But Clowware is there for the put back.

It was a quiet play, might have looked, might have been overlooked.

But the reason I liked it was kind of going back to the theme of the show, the physicality that this team was playing,

what the taking care of business, that was Clowware doing his job.

When you're the big man, when you're the center, your job is to trail the play, especially when you're a center like Clow,

who could be the trail of three point guy too.

But as bam went all the way to the basket, Clowd didn't stop three point line.

He went all the way with bam to the Ram, knowing that hey, I've got to keep running.

I got to run the full length of the court because maybe bam makes a shot and I ran for no reason,

but maybe he misses it and I'm going to be there for the put back.

And that's exactly what Clowd did, quiet play, but one of those things that gets shouted on on film tomorrow

and Clowware gets like a gold sticker or something like that after the game.

I thought it was a really good Clowware game, or not really good, but I was impressed overall.

11 points, 13 rebounds, five steals, no blocks, kind of a weird box score for him,

but an effective game overall for Clow.

And again, I like the way that he bounced back after picking up those, getting in that early foul trouble

and not letting that take him out of his game completely.

I thought it was a mature sort of, again, business like game from Clow,

so he gets one credit cookie.

All right, let's get to our questions from the Cookie Gang.

You can submit questions for post-game shows like this one by joining the Every Day or Club.

Tap the link in the show notes to learn more.

This question comes from Jonah, writes,

and Clowware seems to have turned a bit of a corner post all-star break.

Do you see it too, or am I just seeking out what I hope to see?

Follow up, what do you think of the take that we should sell high on where now?

I'll start with the first part of this question that where seems to maybe have turned a corner.

I don't know that I would go that far in terms of turning the corner.

I think it's just been up and down season from, in general.

I don't think he's had his best games the seasons since the all-star break.

I think he's had better games earlier when he was on that double-double stretch and all those things.

But look, I think it's been a good stretch here for Clow.

Maybe not as up and down as it had been pre-all-star break.

Maybe it's a little bit more consistent.

So maybe he's not reaching the same highs as he did, but he's also not hitting those same lows.

There are some bone-headed plays, some defensive miscues here and there, even since the break.

But overall, I think it's been more solid.

I also want to point this out that we are seeing more minutes of Bam and Wear on the court together right now.

But because they're not starting, those minutes are coming against, you know,

instead of the opposing starters, against opposing reserves more often than not.

And when we talk about that plus-minus for the Bam and Wear minutes,

trending in the right direction, I'm not necessarily saying it's because they're going against bench players as opposed to starters now.

Because when it was in a negative, it was after they had started quite a bit of games together.

But that could be something, that could be a factor in this.

Now, that said, you know, Bam and Wear together were a plus-eight in about 17 minutes tonight.

I thought they were really good together in this game, but this was against a bad Brooklyn team.

I don't know that you want to take away a ton from this game based on the opponent.

But you play who's in front of you and you try to, you know, develop your habits and do the right things.

And I do think that Wear and Bam have been trending in the right direction together since the all-star break.

And I did like what I saw today.

We talked about some of the plays that they made together in this game already.

In terms of whether or not you want to sell high on Bam, look, if he keeps playing like this,

he then maybe becomes a more interesting piece in a Yana Sardana, the missile trade.

And I think you would still have to include him in a trade like that.

But that's kind of obvious.

In terms of the question, like selling high on Wear, like, what are we talking about exactly there?

Like, would you do something like trade him for a team in need of a center for maybe an unprotected or very lightly protected first-round pick in the future that, you know, could potentially,

that could potentially become a top five pick.

Maybe, like, I guess that's what you might be talking about there.

But in terms of selling high, I just don't really know what you do with a center like Kaleil.

If you're not trading him as, you know, a blue chip piece in terms of a superstar trade.

And I don't really see this team just trading a good player for the potential of a draft pick in the future,

even if that, you know, might be kind of an interesting creative way to go get a pick that could potentially become a top five pick without having to tank.

Right, and I do think that he should explore ways to do that, maybe not necessarily doing that by trading Kaleil, but we'll see.

Last question that we have from Alachai writes in.

I may have a stupid question, but why haven't we seen or heard much of anything about Vlad Goldin?

It seemed like they were so eager to sign him to a two-way contract and he hasn't really gotten a chance to play in any NBA games.

I thought we would have solved Vlad a little bit more after they signed him after the draft to a two-way contract.

They signed him right away, scooped him up, signed him right away to a two-way.

So they obviously liked something there, but I wouldn't read too much into it just because he's not ready to play now.

It doesn't mean he won't ever be ready.

There's clearly some concerns there about his, I think, defensive foot speed.

And just, you know, the center position, as we've seen, if you're not a freak athlete, the learning curve is really steep.

So I think that they're willing to work with him.

Everything I hear about Vlad, by the way, is positive.

I don't really hear anything negative about him. He's a good locker room guy, teammates like him. He's doing the work.

But, yeah, I just...

The heat of clearly decided, like, we don't really want to reserve center on the roster.

And if we did really need a breakglass in case of emergency type center, I guess we have Vlad Goldin on a two-way.

But in general, they've played Kasha Johnson over Vlad Goldin as, you know, emergency center.

So they've made that decision.

It's not bad. If it's not where, they're gonna go small with Nico or Kasha or something like that in an emergency center situation.

So that's where they're at.

But I wouldn't read too much into this at the point of the question of Vlad not playing.

It doesn't mean that he's not doing anything right. It doesn't mean he's not developing in the right way.

It just means that he's not ready right now, but he could be ready in the future.

Thanks for tuning in today to Lockdown Heat.

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