NEW YORK \u2014 Circle March 22 on your calendars, Knicks fans.<\/p>\n
Because if Bam Adebayo can score 83 points against the Washington Wizards, there\u2019s no telling what Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns might do to the most miserable defense the NBA has seen in years \u2014 possibly ever in the modern era.<\/p>\n
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Yes, the Wizards are that bad.<\/p>\n
So bad they allowed Adebayo \u2014 a player averaging just 18.9 points per game entering Tuesday \u2014 to eclipse Kobe Bryant\u2019s famous 81-point performance, the second-highest scoring game in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s 100.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it when I was first hearing it in real time. He had 30 in the first quarter and got 70. Congratulations to Bam,\u201d said Kevin Durant, whose own career-high of 55 suddenly feels modest in comparison.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how much work he puts in. I looked at the stat sheet. Forty shots. Forty free throws. Twenty threes. That takes a lot of stamina man. It takes a lot of energy to go out there and put those shots up but also make them, set a record and surpass Kobe as the second-highest scoring player in the history of the game. I mean, damn. Congrats to him. Huge, huge accomplishment. It\u2019s something we\u2019re gonna be talking about forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There were no cameras when Chamberlain scored 100 points in 1962, and Bryant\u2019s 81 always felt like a number reserved for the league\u2019s most prolific scorers \u2014 Durant, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, maybe even one of the Knicks\u2019 own on the right night.<\/p>\n
But the Wizards \u2014 those 16-48 Wizards \u2014 had something else in mind.<\/p>\n
And now every player averaging 19 points a night probably believes they can have a career game against a defense that, clearly, will crack under pressure this season.<\/p>\n
Of course, there is an elephant in the room.<\/p>\n
Adebayo shot 43 free throws and made 36 of them. The Heat never trailed, led by as many as 28 points, and entered the fourth quarter up 113-97. Adebayo played 42 minutes while no other Miami starter logged more than 30.<\/p>\n
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Head coach Erik Spoelstra and the Heat were complicit in what some critics might call unethical record-breaking: Miami could have comfortably finished the game with Adebayo on the bench.<\/p>\n
Instead, history was in reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing you think is \u2018how?\u2019 Not because of him but because of the way he plays,\u201d said Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, who played eight games for the Knicks during the 2005-06 season when Bryant scored 81.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I saw Bam only made six three, but 40 free throws or something like that? That tells the story right there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the Washington Wizards.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Bryant scored 81 against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, the Los Angeles Lakers trailed by 16 at halftime. Bryant erupted for 55 points in the second half to carry the Lakers to a 122-104 victory.<\/p>\n
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He shot fewer than half as many free throws as Adebayo (20), and he did it against a Raptors defense that, while hardly elite, was nowhere near as porous as Washington\u2019s current unit. Toronto finished that season 27-55.<\/p>\n
History, however, has a short memory.<\/p>\n
Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said it best: people rarely remember how a record was set.<\/p>\n
Only that it happened.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Forty-three] free throws? It doesn\u2019t matter how you get it. All that matters is that you got it,\u201d Antetokounmpo said when alerted to Adebayo\u2019s record late Tuesday night. \u201cIn 10, 20, 30 years from now, nobody\u2019s gonna remember how many free throws he shot. I don\u2019t think I remember how many shots Kobe shot, or how many free throws or how many threes. All you remember is 81.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWilt, [you remember] 100 [points]. You don\u2019t remember [how]. So at the end of the day, [Bam] got 83 points, and did they win? [Yes] Good. Great way to help your team win a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo delivered those comments just one game before his Milwaukee Bucks were set to face Adebayo\u2019s Heat.<\/p>\n
The Knicks, meanwhile, are 11 days away from their next meeting with Washington \u2014 a Wizards team they\u2019ve already beaten by 31 and 17 points this season.<\/p>\n
New York swept the Wizards 4-0 last year.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 28, 2024, Brunson \u2014 whose career high is 61 points against the San Antonio Spurs \u2014 dropped 55 in a win in Washington. Towns has six 40-point games in a Knicks uniform, though only one of them has come this season.<\/p>\n
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Earlier this year, seven Knicks scored in double figures against Washington. None scored more than 23.<\/p>\n
Given what Adebayo just did, that approach may feel overly polite. Because right now, the Wizards are doing something no team wants to be remembered for:<\/p>\n
They\u2019re turning every opposing star into a scoring opportunist \u2014 and every game into a record chase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Circle March 22 on your calendars, Knicks fans. Because if Bam Adebayo can score 83…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1179,7,1418,123,194,288,563,938,304,1536,150,368,295,121,6,474,209,476,468,5437],"class_list":{"0":"post-653684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-bam-adebayo","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-free-throws","11":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-jalen-brunson","14":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-knicks","17":"tag-kobe-bryant","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-miami","21":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","24":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","25":"tag-toronto-raptors","26":"tag-washington-wizards","27":"tag-wilt-chamberlain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116213844818512229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}