Watching the Q1 now ...
Alex Sarr is giving as good as he is getting early on. Good battle between him and Bam. A Sarr 13pts vs Bam 16pts in first 7min. Then Bam hits a 3 to force a timeout. Sarr comes. A 19-13 pts edge then. Some post ups, some drives, some 3s, dunks. Variety.
Alex Sarr is dribbling the ball up court quite a bit. Strange sight. His defense on Bam is terrible. He can't cover Bam one-on-one. Bam is driving around him too easily. Bam is out-muscling him in the post. A Sarr picks up his 2nd biting on a pump fake. A Sarr's team defense is dreadful too. He is never in position. He wants to help protect the paint which gifts Bam his last 2 threes. I don't mind that so much. I care more that he is in terrible position whenever he is near the paint. Not in good position to provide help or to recover back to his man. Gives up so many easy opportunities to the opposition. His defense is dreadful despite his shot-blocking numbers.
Vukcevic is in now to defend Bam. Bam hits a 3. Looks like Vuke will be too slow to defend Bam on the perimeter - for outside shots or for drives. 22pts in 8 min for Bam now. Yep, drives right around Vuke on next possession for a layup and one. Vuke with a lazy reach in from behind foul. Vuke can't cover Bam. Bam now tied with LeBron with most Q1 pts in a quarter with 25pts. Bam airballs a step back 3. Then drives right by Vuke on next possession again. Misses in the lane. WAS lose the ball. Bam misses 8 foot jumper.
Steal by Bam, coast to coast, fouled. 2 more FTs. Bam breaks LeBron's Q1 pts record. LeBron also had a 25pt Q3. Both are highs for any quarter. So now Bam has the Heat all time record for pts in a quarter. 27pts Bam. Bam hits a pull up 3 in transition. About 3 feet behind the line on the right wing. Vuke giving him space to shoot. 30pts. Misses a catch and shoot 3 top of the key. Bam turns it over next poss but WAS can't run a fastbreak - turnover. Vukcevic hits a 3 on next WAS poss. That might be the 1st good thing he has done in his 5min on the floor. He has been terrible. Bam offensive foul hitting Vuke to the ground. Another turnover for Bam. Bam makes up for it on the other end with a block to deny a layup triggering a fastbreak layup for MIA on the other end. Vuke and Bam fighting for position. Both guys banging each other. Foul Vuke. Bam 1 of 2. Bam 31pts.
WAS 2nd unit was terrible = a small guard named Sharife Cooper. Then Jalen Hardy, Justin Champagnie, Anthony Gill, Vukcevic. Champagnie and Hardy are below average bench players. The other 3 guys are all 3rd stringers to non-NBA talent.
Q2 ....
Bam rests to start Q2. MIA no backup center with K Ware out. Tallest MIA player is 6 foot 6 = Jaquez + Keshad Johnson. Larsson 6-5. Sorry, Fontecchio at 6-7. He is the tallest. Then Dru Smith as a 6-2 combo guard. So a tiny MIA 2nd unit. At least they have some legit NBA talent with Jaquez, Fontecchio, Dru Smith and Larsson. So their 2nd unit is clearly stronger than WAS 2nd unit despite having no size or interior presence themselves.
WAS now playing Anthony Gill as their center with Vukcevic back on the bench. Will Riley and Justin Champagnie at forward. Tre Johnson and Bub Carrington at guard.
Will Riley is like Jordan Walsh in his rookie season. You can see the talent as a defensive playmaker / stopper but right now he is a deer in the headlights.
Bam back in. Thank god. WAS bring A Sarr back as well. Bam immediately draws the 3rd foul on Sarr. Offensive rebound, pump fake, Sarr whacks him. WAS have looked devoid of talent without Sarr. They need to keep him out there. They should have Sarr defend someone other than Bam. Protect him from more fouls. Next poss, Bam beats Sarr easily on the drive for a layup. 34pts for Bam.
Bam has a quick trigger on a bunch of these 3s. Fires up another from the corner after 1st pass on offensive set. Clank. Sarr gets a putback. 17pts for Sarr. Bam had switched off of him. Bam posts Sarr, all the time in the world, no double, jump hook, misses. Sarr misses a PnP 3. Sarr mises pull up 3 = lazy shot. Bam with what looks to be a clear dunk in transition but Sarr denies him at the rim. I think that is the 2nd time Sarr has rejected Bam at the basket. Pelle Larsson boxing out Sarr on the backboards, no trouble moving the skinny Sarr out of position.
Bam misses open 3. Sarr misses a runner in the lane in transition, fastbreak the other way, Sarr out of position, Bam sets up inside the paint, gets the ball, whacked. 2 more FTs. 36pts. That breaks the Miami Heat record for most pts in a half. Sarr hits a step back 3 over Bam. 20pts for Sarr. Bam with a beautiful spin move and finish over a good contest from Sarr. 38pts. 12-22 FGA for Bam. Coulibaly scores. I haven't noticed him all half. Sarr out. A Gill in to defend Bam. Bam blows by Gill on the baseline, fouled and pushed out of bounds. Gill can't be getting beaten so easily on face up. He is a smaller big / muscular big forward. 40pts Bam. 11-13 FTA. Dang, that means he got 30 FTAs in the 2nd half. Sarr back in. Not on Bam. Bam drives, reach in foul by W Riley across the arm, and one, 3pt play. 43pts. Bam misses a 3. Sarr pull up 3 to end the half. 23pts for Sarr. Bam misses halfcourt heave.
Heat up by 14pts at halftime. 43pts for Bam. 23pts for Sarr.
All the fouls look fair so far but Bam has only 14 FTAs over his 43 FTAs so most of the fouls will be in the 2nd half.
Q3 ...
Sarr opens up with a short jumper around the lane. 25pts. Bam attacks him right back on the other end. Physical post up. Bam using his arm a lot to move Sarr. Gets away with it. Passes out. Sarr out of position. Ball rotates back to Bam, easy drive because Sarr's feat aren't set, dunk. 45pts. Sarr misses PnP 3. LeBron's 61pt game is Miami Heat all time record.
Annoucers call this a "non-confrontational game" after Davion Mitchell "non-chalantly" walks down the lane for a layup. He has a couple of those. WAS are atrocious defensively. So were TOR when Kobe got his 81. I believe the team Wilt got his 100 against were also. Short of bigs, then foul outs, nobody who could defend him. You need a hot night + bad defense to get those huge points totals. David Robinson got his 71pts against a bad Clippers team.
Sarr with a ridiculous catch and shoot 3 from top of key against the shot clock buzzer off a baseline inbounds play. Heavily contested. 28pts for Sarr. 28pts is what he finished the night with. I wonder how much he plays 2nd half but he has it going offensively and he only finished with 4 fouls. Coach must have sat him a long time. Only 20min. Bam spot up corner 3. 48pts. Bam misses transition left wing 3, WAS rebound, Sarr in transition, to the basket, Bam contests, Sarr goes up soft, misses the soft touch off glass layup.
Bam isos right wing on Sarr, spins, pump fakes, more pump fakes, hey Sarr is learning! Stays on his feet, forces a tough fadeaway, miss. 6min mark. Sarr comes out. I wonder if he is done for the night. MIA up 95-75.
Vukcevic back on Bam. Immediately loses Bam on a drive as Vuke can't help and recover properly. Bam fouled on drive to the basket by Coulibaly. This must be when his parade to the FT line begins. 12-14 FTA at this point. Hits both. 50pts. Bam leaks out in transition, pass ahead, dunk. 52pts. Timeout. Tech foul. Bam shoots it. 53pts.
Announcers saying Bam passed the 10,000th career point mark recently.
Elbow touch, Bam faces up, shoulder fake, goes the other way, blows past Vukcevic, Vuke bumps him, foul. Two more FTs. Hits both. It was a steady 14-15pts lead for MIA but a recent run (17-6 run) since Sarr's last basket has pushed it to 25-26pts. That game is well and truly over now. Around the 4:30 mark in Q3. Bam is playing good defense in this game as well as scoring. Bam misses a transition pull up 3.
Bam brings the ball upcourt, right side of court cleared out, Bam drives on Vuke, double comes, stops Bam on baseline, two WAS defenders don't hold position, Bam breaks the double, steps through, gets contact from Vuke, foul. Sloppy defending. Looked like Vuke fouled him low (bump) and then came down on Bam's arms trying to block the shot. He had position. Just stay where you are. Instead tried to trap him and force a turnover. Hits 2 FTs. 57pts. Bam has moved passed Glen Rice's 56pts against Orlando in mid-90s. 2nd highest MIA scoring game now. Vuke comes out. A Gill back in.
Bam misses a forced 18 foot fadeaway left wing over a smaller player. Forced the action. Next poss. Is that Tre Johnson defending Bam? Bam beasting in the post against a smaller guard. Whacked. More FTs. 1-2. 58pts. 19-23 FTA. 3min mark Q3. So Bam is going to get another 20 FTs in final stage of the game (Q4 + 3min Q3) with the game already decided (25pt lead still). Not only 20 FTs but 25pts so most of those points must be coming at the FT line since he shot so well there.
A Gill bumps Bam (strong bump) while Bam cuts across the lane for a post up. Foul. 1 of 2 FTs. 59pts. 20-25 FTA. 16-34 FGA. PnP action, Bam pump fakes top of the key, drives hard, fouled hard. Splits them. 60pts. 21-27 FTA. Bam has played 30min out 36min so far. Turnover, nobody back, 3 on 0, Bam dunk. 62pts. He has now broken LeBron's game high scoring record for MIA.
This does feel a bit like a High School game. One team has an NBA level center. The other team only has a slow chunky 6-6 / 6-7 guy (Anthony Gill) to defend him. He lights them up. Vukcevic was too slow to defend Bam. Sarr was the only guy who could match up with Bam and his defense was very bad most of the night.
Q4 ....
No rest for Bam. He stays in. So he finished with 42min so he must play the rest of the way. 6min rest in 1st half. No rest in 2nd half.
Bam drives, fouled again. These are all fouls. He is getting hit. Makes both FTs. 64pts. WAS have trimmed the lead from ~25pts back down to 15pts. So the game is not out of touch. It is not rest your starters / play your bench time yet. It looked like it would be but WAS hanging in there. Make that a 13pt game. Bam hits a corner 3 to put it back to 16pts.
I wonder if that is Bam's last basket? If all his remaining pts come a the FT line. Bam has 67pts. 7-17 on threes. 7 threes is a career high for Bam. He finishes 7-21 from 3 so he misses his last 4.
Announcers saying that 67pts has been reached 21 times in NBA history. Wilt has 9 of those 21 games.
Bam catches it left wing three point line, defender goes for the steal, wide open lane to the rim, Bam drives, Bam fouled to stop the dunk. Layup goes in. And one. 70pts. Bam has now beaten MJ's career high of 69pts.
Announcers say it is the 16th time in NBA history a player has gotten to 70pts. Bam is 19-37 FGA 25-30 FTA. He finished with 36-43 FTAs so he gets 11 of his final 13pts from the foul line.
Bam with a block to deny a layup. 2nd time he has done that. He finished with 2 blocks & 2 steals along with 9 rebounds and 3 assists in addition to his 83 points. Game starting to look like a recent ASG now. No defense in transition. Silly lob pass. WAS have given up. Still no A Sarr. He has been out since around the 6min mark in Q3 after scoring 28pts in 20min.
Bam misses catch and shoot 3 top of key in transition. Bam in transition, drives on A Gill, draws contact, foul. Nobody helped Gill to seal Bam off. Bam too quick and shifty for Gill off the dribble. 1 of 2. Lead back up to 28pts. Nearing the 6min mark. Game is over. 71pts for Bam. Ties David Robinson. Transition. Pass to Bam in right corner, pump fake, smaller quicker defender Coulibaly bites on the fake, Bam blows by him, Coulibaly hits him as Bam goes up to earn the FTs. Dumb defense again. Splits them. 72pts. 27-34 FTA.
Coulibaly all over Bam playing off-ball denial defense. Like a small dog jumping up and down on someone's leg. Foul. Bam hits 2. 74pts. Next poss. Coulibaly all over Bam, Bam loses him on a screen, Bam tries to drive, doubled, triple teamed. Turnover. Struggling to get Bam the ball top of the key, eventually get it to him, forces quick fire 3, miss. Bam in post, smaller defender, Coulibaly (skinny 6-7), Bam seals him, deep catch, lay in + and one. 77pts.
Wilt's 78pt night is 3rd highest in NBA history.
Bam misses pull up 3 in transition. Forced it. Offensive rebound, dribble out, passes to Bam, nobody defending him, Bam drives into the lane, charges into someone, foul. Offensive foul. Turnover. Good call. Spo challenges the call. Officials review and stick with the offensive foul. Bam misses another 3 against the shot clock. Rebound. Pass to a cutting Bam in the lane. Whacked across the arms. Foul. Wiz coach challenges the call. Unsuccessful. The guy hacked his arm and was hugging him on his back. How did the coach think that wasn't a foul? Two FTs. 79pts. Bam just passed Wilt for the 3rd highest single game pts all time.
MIA start fouling to get extra possessions. There is 1:40 left on the game clock. MIA are up 146-119 so a 27pts lead. They have been force feeding Bam for several minutes but this is the start of the fouling for extra possessions.
Inbounds to Bam, dribbles up left side of the court, two players around him, screen, keeps going, runs into a 3rd defender who is moving, contact, foul. Bam shoots but ref says before the shot. WAS in penalty. Two more FTs. Fair call. Defender did not have position. 81pts.
3rd player along with Wilt and Kobe to get 80+pts.
MIA foul again. Only 5 seconds went off the clock from 1st MIA foul (1:40), Bam drive and foul, 2nd MIA foul (1:35). Inbounds to Bam. Tripled teamed in backcourt. Has to pass ahead. WAS intentionally foul Keyshawn Johnson to avoid Bam getting the ball back. Again, like a High School team would do. Keyshawn misses FT on purpose. Bam goes for rebound, he fouls WAS. WAS triple teaming Bam in backcourt again. Almost force turnover. Sideline out. Now do avoid turnover, layup WAS. WAS out of position, easy inbounds to Bam, midcourt by himself, dribbles upcourt, has open teammates, does not pass, forces it, drives into two, gets contact, foul. Ref says A Gill was moving on block / charge call. Not sure. Yeah, replay shows fair call. He was moving. Bam makes both. 83pts.
1:16 to play. Bam is subbed out now. He has beaten Kobe's 81pt mark.
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It was a fair whistle. WAS defense was just that bad. And they fouled Bam that many times.
Sarr was the only guy who could cover him and even his defense was abysmal. Vukcevic was too slow and Bam went right around him whenever he wanted. A Gill was too slow and too short. Bam got whatever he wanted against him. Late on, Coulibaly who was too thin / weak to defend Bam. Bam was beating these guys one-on-one. WAS were hacking away at him. He was earning those trips to the foul line.
And WAS provided little help to Vuke or Gill to defend Bam. No double teams. Reminiscent of Kobe's 81pt night against Toronto. Toronto had no athletic wings / defensive wings who could matchup against Kobe. Raptors coach (Sam Mitchell) refused to double team. Kobe got 81pts. WAS did the same. Bam had dream matchups, WAS provided no help, Bam exploited them.
