Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo downplayed the importance of his team’s rivalry with the Boston Celtics on Friday night. The Heat fell to 0-2 for the first time since the 2007-08 season after a 111-104 loss to the Celtics.
Following the defeat at the FTX Arena, Adebayo gave his opinion on the Celtic-Heat match. “Game by game man. Take it game by game. Opponents will be antagonists. But at the end of the day, we want to win every game.
According to a few NBA betting sites, the Heat have the 10th-best odds to win the championship in 2023. Sportsbooks, though, know this is Miami’s first 0-2 start of the Erik Spoelstra era.
Bam made the first 6 balls, now 6/7 at the break 💥 pic.twitter.com/dEPJxeccGO
— Miami Heat (@MiamiHEAT) October 22, 2022
“That’s the mentality,” Bam Adebayo continued. The story between us, there’s obviously a bit of a dogfight in that. But other than that, it’s just a game-by-game mentality.”
Based on a total of 130 regular season games, the Celtics have a 79-51 all-time record against the Heat. Last season, Boston finished 2-1 in the regular season against Miami.
In the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, the C’s defeated the Heat in seven games. Of course, Jayson Tatum won the NBA Eastern Conference Finals MVP award.
Heat center Bam Adebayo is focused on winning individual games, not competition with Celtic.
In addition, Bam Adebayo finished with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in 35 minutes on Friday night. He shot 8-of-11 from the field. Boston outscored Miami 30-22 in the opening quarter.
Defensively, the center was disappointed with their team’s overall effort. “It’s not our fault,” Adebayo added. “I feel like 104 points wins a game. It’s the other end that we have to lock down.”
Adebayo’s fourth foul and technical foul led to a quick turnaround. Both teams won 20-6. But Miami could not keep up with Boston.
We know that there is bam 💥 3/3 female circumcision earlier pic.twitter.com/eUc3WMFWxu
— Miami Heat (@MiamiHEAT) October 21, 2022
Tyler Herro led the Force with 25 points in 36 minutes of action. He finished 10-of-21 from the field and 2-of-6 from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, Celtics Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 57 points against the Heat. “We have a great team and we’re still trying to figure each other out,” Tatum said in a postgame interview.
“And I like playing with heat. We’ve got some history here over the last couple of years, and they push you. They make you a better team. They got a lot of fire, a lot of great players, a great coach.
Tatum and Brown became the second Celtics duo in franchise history to score 25 points in the first two games to start a season. Joined by Robert Parrish and Larry Bird (1984-85 season).
