By Ira Winderman | [email protected] | South Florida Sun Sentinel
Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night's 118-98 victory over the Washington Wizards in Mexico City:
- The irony of this one is that it seemingly took the thin air for Bam Adebayo to finally exhale.
- After failing to score more than 12 points in any of the previous fours games this season, Adebayo surpassed that total early in the second period and was up to 20 points at halftime.
- He took the Heat's first shot, scoring the Heat's first basket.
- Or reaching such an altitude to get this kind of result.
- The 20-point first half was Adebayo's highest-scoring half since he had 20 in New Orleans in the second half last February.
- It was his highest-scoring first half since he scored 20 over the first two periods against the visiting Pacers on Feb. 7, 2023.
- The Heat remained for the fifth time in as many games with an opening lineup of Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier.
- Out for the Heat were Kevin Love (personal reasons), Duncan Robinson (personal reasons), Josh Christopher (G League) and Keshad Johnson (G League).
- That left the Heat with 13 available players.
- The Wizards started three rookies: Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr. Plus second-year Bilal Coulibaly and Jordan Poole.
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. continued as Heat sixth man.
- Alec Burks and Thomas Bryant followed, with Burks getting his run with Robinson out.
- And then Josh Richardson made his season debut, after being sidelined by shoulder, heel and calf issues.
- Richardson entered playing point guard.
- With the Heat, in part because of the altitude, going 10 deep early, with Pelle Larsson entering in the second period.
- Herro converted a 3-pointer for the 44th consecutive game. His longest career streak is 53 consecutive such games.
- Herro scored in double figures for the 35th consecutive game, three games shy of the longest such streak of his career.
- Of the trip, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said going into the game, "It's fun. We love it down here. I know it's also a special time for Jaime."
- Spoelstra also said, "I think these are great experiences. We've enjoyed it."
- Asked before the game about Jaquez's uniqueness as a person, Spoelstra said, "He's like a renaissance man. He's a really interesting guy. He has a lot of different interests."
- Of playing on the night of Mexico's Dia de la Muertos, Spoelstra said, "It's always alive in here."
- The game came a day after Spoelstra's 54th birthday.
- Asked pregame how he celebrated, Spoelstra said, "I celebrated with a hard, two-hour practice with the team and a nice dinner with the staff afterwards."
- Butler spoke of his passion as a fan in making the trip, "I love that they love basketball here, but I'm a football player first, that's my first true love."
- As in soccer.
- Of the trip, Adebayo said, "This is my third team being here and it's a surreal moment, always."
- The game counted against the Wizards' home schedule, but Adebayo said the trip felt otherwise.
- "Here I don't think we're the visiting team," he said. "Even if we didn't have Jaime, I feel like there's a lot of great support of Heat fans here."
- And, "For us here, I don't feel like we're a road team."
- Adebayo added, "I've said it before, the atmosphere is amazing here. It's a different culture, but it's kind of the same when you go to Miami."
- Of the Heat's goal going in, Spoelstra said, "It's just about where we are early in the season. We're trying to gain our footing and to see if we can improve."
- Former Heat guard Goran Dragic was among ex-NBA players in attendance.