The Miami Heat got a much needed win on Monday night against a New York Knicks team jousting for position in the Eastern Conference, just like Miami is. Coming out sluggishly, the Miami Heat were held to just 36 points in the opening half.
While they would go on to return the favor, holding the Knicks to almost as few points in the second half as they had held the Miami Heat to in the first half, it was more about the effort that led that charge. One effort of note was that of Bam Adebayo.
Knicks have 35 second-half points with two minutes left in the game.
— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) March 30, 2021
The Miami Heat’s big man had one of his more aggressive games of the season. Often times, when people hear that word in the terms of a basketball player or the game of basketball, they think it means that a player should be shooting or hunting shots.
The Miami Heat need Bam Adebayo to be aggressive at all times and he was that on Monday night.
It doesn’t always or necessarily have to mean that at all though. Aggression in the game of basketball, or any sport for that matter, is the act of doing everything with purpose and intent.
To lack aggression is to be lethargic and seemingly uninterested at times. That’s not to say totally uninterested, as they are still professional athletes, in this case, but athletes in general that, more often than not, love the game they play, so you know the effort is there.
This manifests itself sometimes when there are plays there to be made that said player should make and for some reason, don’t. Perhaps, it could also look like a player not being their best self on a night to night basis when they’ve shown that they can or should be better.
For Bam specifically, it most often comes in the form of him not even looking for his own offense or to be aggressive in the creation department via the attack, for his own offense or to create for someone else.
That was not the case on Monday night though, as Bam was everywhere. Not only did he look for his own offense, but he attacked in general to generate offense for the entire team.
He was also constantly the aggressor in all other facets of the game. He was a man on the glass, while he also provided quite the defensive impact as well.
What you love, specifically, was how he mixed it up off the dribble. He started at the top and finished as a facilitator for what ended as buckets.
He also initiated his own offense from the top, dribbling the defender down into the painted area where his sweet spot lives, before rising for the pretty mid-ranged jumper. Bam would finish with 20 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and a steal.
This was the type of game from Bam that not only leaves you drooling, but enamored and fully confident in the fact that he literally still has so much potential to do that on a night to night basis, perhaps on a higher level even.
This was the Bam Adebayo that you love to see. This was the Bam Adebayo that could be the key to the Miami Heat winning a title this year.