Film breakdown: How Bam Adebayo scored his season-high against the Wizards

The Miami Heat easily took care of business against the Washington Wizards, winning 118-98 in Mexico City on Saturday night.

Although this felt more of a win defensively, where the Wizards lacked the talent and couldn’t get anything going for themselves outside of scoring 35 points on the fastbreak. The biggest standout was Bam Adebayo, who led the team in both points and shots.

Bam Adebayo had his breakout game over the weekend, but can he keep it going?

Adebayo’s offense has been one of the bigger topics for the Heat because of his very low usage and involvement in the offense. Coach Erik Spoelstra made it clear that it was on him that saw Adebayo with so few touches and that it was on him to get him more touches.

They wasted absolutely no time getting Adebayo involved. This was common last year where the first play of the game was usually a cross-screen in the paint for Adebayo to get him an isolation in the post. They gradually went away from that play as the year went on and we see it back for the first time:

Here it was Tyler Herro setting a cross screen for Adebayo to get into a post position. Terry Rozier feeds him and he wastes no time looking to attack Alex Sarr. He gets himself into the paint and rises up for a quick hook shot.

What followed was 23 more shot attempts for Adebayo. By my count, he had 13 possessions that he looked to create for himself or others in isolation or post-ups. That’s a lot. I don’t think any other players have been used at a similar volume when it comes to their self-creation.

The results varied. A lot of the possessions were similar to what he has done over the last two years and it’s hunting those short mid-range shots.

Those are the possessions where he’s going 1 on 1. The side is cleared, and it’s usually the only action that they run. These are the possessions I’m not particularly a fan of at this volume, especially on those kinds of shots.

Seven possessions in isolation (post included) that end with the player is a lot — for comparison, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads the league with 7.2. These can be good actions to slow things down, stabilize the offense, and get some kind of look, but it’s not at this volume.

You also had these better possessions:

These are better looks. This is getting shots closer to the rim and increasing the chance of getting fouled. He had five of those possessions. In a game like this, I’d honestly expect a better ratio than that. He either has Jonas Valanciunas guarding him whom he should easily blow by or he has Alex Sarr, which he should body inside for easy points or draw fouls. There shouldn’t be a need to rely on fadeaways.

One other point on those looks is that many times his pick and rolls, also turn into similar looks. That simply adds more possessions that resemble and have a similar impact as if you went into isolation or a post-up:

That’s why he went 9 of 19 from inside the arc, including 4 of 13 from outside the restricted area. That looks a lot worse than saying he went off on 12 of 24 shooting. But the goal was to get him going after a slow start to the season doing so. At the end of the day, it is the Wizards, so they could afford to do this.

The next step in his isolation is game is this:

It's drawing that defense because you're able to exploit the matchups and using that as a way to create easier shots for others or put the defense in rotation.

Outside of that he also got his first points from beyond the arc! Adebayo is officially a shooter now:

This was perfect in how he’d be used as a shooter in the pick-and-roll or a spacer off-ball. There are possessions where he’s used as a shooter in the pick-and-pop, which makes that action more effective. There are possessions where he’s sitting in the strong corner where there’s another action going on. Or he’s simply around the break, which gives a good release valve for anyone who attacks and sees the defense inside.

It’s giving the Heat variety in how they use him and where they place him.

Now, Adebayo's offense comes down to two things. The first is simply making shots. The other is figuring out how to balance being a spacer versus either being inside or doing damage as a cutter. (On that note, the Milwaukee Bucks have used Giannis Antetokounmpo in a similar way where he’s cutting from the slot with the defense sagging off -- there’s little that you can do to stop him.)

When it comes to self-creation, this game showed that if they need to, they have another option: feeding Adebayo. But it’s another conversation about how to balance that with everything else. It’s going to be tough to incorporate double-digit possessions in isolation or post-ups with everyone else. Someone will have to sacrifice and be used differently.

They have a stretch of games against a much better opponent in the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. What do three of those teams have in common? They all have one of the better bigs. What we saw from Adebayo in this game against a rookie big versus what we might see versus an All-Star caliber big might be very different.