The Miami Heat are coming off one of their worst performances ever. Forget just in the NBA Playoffs, when you don’t get but 18 points from your starters and with two of them putting up goose eggs in the points column, that’s all-time low territory, in general.
This isn’t about one guy, to be clear. But with that fact out of the way, you can point to individual performances to say what needs to happen moving forward.
Right now, the light is focused on Bam Adebayo. Listen, if you watch the Miami Heat, then you know that Bam Adebayo is at his absolute least effective when dealing with size and length.
Joel Embiid tends to give him issues at times and Robert Williams in this current series has certainly been a problem for Adebayo. In accordance with his Game 3 showing, the Celtics paid extra close attention to him in Game 4.
~Thread on Heat-Celtics Game 4~
— Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg) May 24, 2022
The Celtics countered Bam Adebayo's big Game 3 by showing him a wall in the paint, denying early post position and making him think.
Even outside of the things mentioned by Goldberg above though, there was something else really noticeable about Bam’s Game 4.
As Bam is among his most effective, offensively, when he can put his defender in the faceup triple threat position, the Celtics wouldn’t allow him to get comfortable there last night. They constantly showed him bodies and hands, ultimately disrupting his ability to get to his stuff or in an offensive rhythm.
Miami Heat: More Decisive Aggression Is All That Can Propel Bam Adebayo
Immediately upon going into his jab-step or faceup action, something Adebayo uses to get on balance for his midrange jump shot, to assess the defense for a pass, or to size his man up for the drive—the Celtics defenders were in his space.
They wouldn’t allow Bam to get comfortable enough to execute his stuff. How does he counter that though?
Well, it’s the same answer as it always is with Bam.
He has to be more aggressive, though it doesn’t present itself in the same way it traditionally has.
While, typically, “being more aggressive” for Bam is about, simply, shooting his shots, it means something a bit different in this instance. Now, Bam has to be more aggressively decisive with his action.
He has to, almost, expect the early contact, hands, and bodies on him when he touches the rock, mentally preparing himself to go right into his stuff on the touch. That’s the only counter for what they are doing to him, to be quicker in getting to his desired approach.
Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo Has To Get To Stuff Before Defense Can Get To Him
Whether that means catching, facing, and attacking immediately without his half-second to second jab step action or going right into the midrange pull-up, Adebayo has to be quicker in his moves to counter the defensive approach they are taking with him.
That should help him be more effective for the Miami Heat, in general, but also against the Celtics’ two main defenders for him. Going quicker and more decisive should allow him to get his shot off before Robert Williams, the talented shot-blocker, can get there.
It should also allow him to keep Al Horford off-balanced enough to blow by him. After he’s been blown by a few times, the space will, inevitably, increase for Bam’s jumper or to make something happen for a teammate.
At the end of the day though, Adebayo has to be more decisively aggressive to counter what the Celtics are doing.
That’s his only play here, as to wait any longer or take an extra second to see how they are playing him—will only allow them to be that much more effective in taking him out of the game.