Adebayo enjoying added attempts on free throws
Bam Adebayo is averaging career highs in points and field-goal attempts this season, but his shooting efficiency is essentially down across the board. However, the Heat’s twotime all-star has managed to bump up at least one number that can help improve his offensive efficiency.
While Adebayo entered Monday night’s home game against the Houston Rockets with a career-low field-goal percentage of 50.4, he’s taking a careerhigh 7.7 free-throw attempts per game this season.
“It’s easier on your body,” Adebayo said of the extra time spent at the foul line, where he entered Monday having made 78.1 percent of his free throws this season. “You get time to rest, get time to really get your thoughts together, being able to realize that we can get to a certain [team] goal of shooting 40 free throws a game and doing that and staying consistent with it.
“Being consistent and honestly just being aggressive, being assertive. I feel like I’ve earned a lot of the respect from the referees where it’s like, ‘You’re not rookie Bam no more. We can give you a foul or two.’”
Adebayo’s previous career high for free-throw attempts was set during the 2021-22 season, when he averaged 6.1 per game.
Adebayo, 26, is doing it while opponents throw more double teams and other defensive schemes at him than ever in his seventh NBA season.
“He’s being assertive and aggressive, first and foremost,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And then reading the defense. He’s having to deal with more schemes that he’s had before and I think that’s fun for him. It’s good for our team, as well. And he’s getting better at making those reads game to game. It’s different game
to game.”
Adebayo is taking more free throws than usual lately, too.
He entered Monday with seven games of 10 or more free-throw attempts this season, and four of those games have come in the last three weeks.
During this three-week stretch, Adebayo established a career high with 20 free-throw attempts in a Dec. 30 road loss to the Utah Jazz.
“Watching the game,” Adebayo said of what’s behind his extra free throws this season. “Watching film, you understand what the rule book is when it comes to the referees, understanding what’s a foul, understanding when we get into the bonus, all those things start to go through your mind . ...
“Obviously, if they go on a run, how do you end that run? Get two fouls shots, cool them down and stop the momentum.”
For a player like Adebayo who doesn’t take as many shots at the rim as other big men around the league and whose shot diet consists of mostly mid-range shots, free throws are a way for him to generate easier points.
Adebayo has taken a career-low 34 percent of his field-goal attempts from around the rim this season, according to Cleaning The Glass.
That percentage ranks in the 24th percentile among NBA big men. That’s led to a careerhigh 64 percent of Adebayo’s shots coming in as non-rim twos, which has resulted in a dip in overall field-goal percentage.
If Adebayo can continue to generate free throws at a career-high rate, it will help offset a shot chart that has moved a little farther away from the basket this season. That’s important for Adebayo and the Heat’s offense.
RESPECT THE GRIND
Asked whether last season’s run to the NBA Finals as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 playoff seed has affected the Heat’s motivation to make another deep run this season, Spoelstra didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“We’re supremely motivated. Do you know who my boss is?” Spoelstra said with a grin, referring to Heat president Pat Riley.
“You just hope you’ll have more cracks at it and more opportunities. Nothing is guaranteed.
“That’s why you just have to approach the regular season the right way, develop a bunch of habits that translate to the postseason. Hopefully get a real connectivity, a toughness, a grit that you need in that postseason.”
The Heat has advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in three of the last four seasons and
NBA Finals in two of the last four seasons, but has not won an NBA championship during this stretch.
The Heat fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals and lost to the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
“So far, we’re taking those necessary steps and we’ll just see how it plays out,” Spoelstra said.
INJURY UPDATE
The Heat remained without Jimmy Butler (right toe MP joint sprain) for Monday’s game.
It was the fourth straight game that Butler has missed. Because of an earlier calf injury, he has missed eight of the last nine games.
There remains cautious optimism that Butler, 34, will be able to return this week during the Heat’s four-game homestand.
Also for the Heat, Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain) was listed as doubtful.
The Rockets were without Dillon Brooks (right oblique strain), Tari Eason (left lower leg injury management) and Victor Oladipo (left patellar tendon repair).