The Miami Heat are 0-4. They have the worst record in the NBA and are one of just five teams who still have not won a game this season. One of the most glaring reasons for their early season struggles is Bam Adebayo who scored eight points on 3-of-10 shooting in a 113-109 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night.
He was the team’s sixth leading scorer behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Bobby Portis. As the team’s second-highest paid player by a wide margin, it makes sense that people might point out he’s not playing well right now, but Adebayo just hopes people will be prepared “when the energy shifts.”
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Bam Adebayo sends a MESSAGE to everyone criticizing his play😳
“My shot’s not going in. I’m not gonna overthink that. Funny how the outside noise wants to make me the scapegoat. But when the energy shifts, be prepared for that.” https://t.co/ktGK34wZAQ
— The HEAT Realm (@WadexFlash) October 27, 2026
Adebayo has been held to single-digit scoring outputs in two of the Heat’s first four games. It is an admittedly small sample size, but he’s averaging his fewest points and rebounds since the 2018-2019 season. He’s also shooting a career-low 40% from the field.
That number should improve, but his field goal percentage has dropped for five consecutive seasons. During the ’20-’21 season he shot a career high 57% from the field. By last season he was down to 44.2% on 15.7 field goal attempts a game.
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He had never shot below 50% from the field until the ’24-’25 season when he started shooting three-pointers regularly. In his first six seasons he never averaged a whole three-point attempt a game. In ’24-’25 he shot 2.8. Last season he shot 5.5 a night, making just 31.8% of those three-point attempts. That was 158th out of 161 players who qualified.
In last night’s game against the Mavericks he was 0-for-5. If Adebayo doesn’t like the completely valid criticism, he might want to step inside the three-point line on offense.
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