After putting together one of the splashier offseasons in the NBA, the Miami Heat have stumbled out of the gate at 0-4 and are starting to hear from the critics.
The Heat lost 113-109 to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, ensuring newly-acquired forward Giannis Antetokounmpo still has not won a regular season game in a Miami uniform. After the game, longtime Heat center Bam Adebayo said he was feeling singled out as the scapegoat for the poor start, but predicted things would turn.
“You know, it’s funny how the outside noise wants to make me the scapegoat,” Adebayo said, via ESPN. “But when the tables turn, just all that energy — when the energy shifts — just be prepared for that.”
Adebayo’s numbers are nowhere near what he normally puts up. He scored just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting in Monday’s loss, and is averaging an underwhelming 11.8 points per game so far on the season. That is a far cry from the 20.1 points per game he averaged last season, and it is not solely down to him ceding touches to Antetokounmpo.
The new Heat are still working out how to play together. This is probably the sort of thing one franchise legend was thinking of when he suggested that Antetokounmpo and Adebayo need to talk things out at some point if this experiment is going to work.
