An Aggressive Bam Adebayo Not Enough For Miami Heat In Game 1

Bam Adebayo finished with a team-high 26 points in the Miami Heat’s loss to the Denver Nuggets

 The Miami Heat were completely dominated and their best player barely showed up in Thursday's loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The positive was Bam Adebayo did all he could to keep the Heat in the game.

The plan was to get Adebayo going early. He scored 16 of his 26 points in the first half.  

“I think we are always trying to find Bam,” said Vincent, who finished the game with 19 points. “And the way they guard, he tended to be open with some of our sets a bit, and he made some good reads, and he made some shots.”

An aggressive Adebayo gives the Heat a better chance in this series. He is needed to combat the production from Nuggets star Nikoka Jokic, who had his ninth triple-double of the postseason in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. 

“He's aggressive,” Vincent said. “We're going to need him to continue to be aggressive and continue to attack and continue to make the right reads for us.”

Adebayo's play is especially important in games Jimmy Butler struggles. He had 13 points, his lowest output of this postseason, in Thursday's loss.  

“When Bam is making shots, I think he makes everybody's job a lot easier," Butler said. "We want him to continually be aggressive, and he was making, you know, the right passes when he couldn't get a bucket, as well, and those shots will fall for everybody. Next game, stay with it and keep playing that style of basketball. But in the end, if we guard better, not give up so many layups, get back, I think the game is a little bit different.”

Cory Nelson is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He attended Northern Virginia Community College. He can be reached at corymckenzienelson@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @CKenzyNelson. You can also check out his personal blog HERE.