MIAMI — Bam Adebayo had the highest-scoring game of his NBA career Tuesday night.
And he needed only the first half to get there.
Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Washington Wizards, breaking the Miami Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.
He finished the half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.
He was 13-for-24 from the field, 12-for-14 from the foul line and 5-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half. He’s the first player with at least 12 field goals, 12 free throws and five 3s in one half since Kobe Bryant (18, 13, six) did it in the second half of his 81-point game against the Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, according to ESPN Research.
Adebayo’s season high in points entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.
The 31-point quarter was the NBA’s highest-scoring quarter since Karl-Anthony Towns had 32 for Minnesota in the third quarter of a game at San Antonio on March 14, 2022.
Besides Towns and now Adebayo, only three other players in the past 30 seasons had at least 31 points in a quarter: Klay Thompson had an NBA record for any quarter with 37 in 2015; Kevin Love had 34 for Cleveland in 2016; and Carmelo Anthony had 33 for Denver against in 2008.
The previous Heat record for points in a first quarter was 25, done by LeBron James at Cleveland on March 18, 2014. James had the only other 25-point quarter in Heat history, part of his team-record 61-point game against Charlotte on March 3, 2014.
Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the past 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
Towns had 44 for Minnesota against Charlotte on Jan. 22, 2024.
The NBA record for points in a first half is 53, shared by Denver’s David Thompson and San Antonio’s George Gervin — who famously did it on the same day: April 9, 1978. That was the final day of that regular season, as those two dueled (albeit in separate games) to decide the league’s scoring title.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
