Los Angeles Lakers fans were upset after Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo surpassed Kobe Bryant's point total
Apparently, the Miami Heat and star center Bam Adebayo have upset the Los Angeles Lakers fan base.
On Tuesday, Adebayo had 83 points in a victory against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center. The points are the second-most in an NBA game behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100. In the process, Adebayo, surpassed Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 in 2006 against the Toronto Raptors.
It prompted Los Angeles Time writer Mirjam Swanson to take issue at Adebayo moving past Bryant.
"So, no. Bryant’s necessary, organic 81 this was not," Swanson wrote. "The Lakers trailed that game against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, at halftime and actually needed Kobe’s 55 second-half points to pull away for the win."
To recap, the Heat were comfortably ahead most of the way when Adebayo was chasing Bryant's total. Some felt the Heat were stat-chasing while allowing Adebayo to rack up points.
Swanson wrote, "The Heat were up by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter with Adebayo continuing to play pop-a-shot in the historic farce — which also moved him past LeBron James, whose 61 points in 2014 stood as Miami’s previous franchise record."
It was more than just Swanson. There were a few others who thought the Heat made the wrong move by allowing Adebayo to keep putting up numbers in a blowout. While Heat fans fawned over Adebayo's performance, ESPN's Tim McMahon thought otherwise. He felt the Heat made a mockery of the game by extending the game so Adebayo could put up the performance.
"This was a hilarious exhibition of hideous basketball against the Washington Generals," McMahon said on the Hoop Collective podcast. "Not the Generals, the Wizards, the blatantly taking, deserve to be humiliated Washington Wizards but goodness sake."
McMahon called it "disgusting" because he felt the Heat were trying to get Adebayo a record.
"I get it, Bam's your guy," McMahon said. "He's got a chance to chase some history but you're up 20-something and you're intentionally fouling to extend the game with minutes left? He's jacking up threes while being triple teamed. It was just awful, hideous, disgusting basketball down the stretch."
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com