Miami Heat teammates Bam Adebayo and Terry Rozier had a falling out near the final minutes of their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Adebayo laid into Rozier for apparently disrupting his rebound attempt.
With about a minute and 20-plus seconds left in the fourth quarter, Adebayo was about to secure a defensive board after a successful block on Ty Jerome’s shot, but Rozier’s hands got in the way, also attempting to rebound the ball, causing it to go out of bounds and returning the possession to the Cavs.
After the referee’s whistle, Adebayo immediately turned to Rozier to give him an earful, which the guard/forward responded to in kind.
“You keep [redacted] up my boards, man,” Bam Adebayo said.
“I got nine rebounds. You already got your double-double. Let me get my [redacted],” Rozier said.
Bam : “you keep fucking up my boards”
Terry: “I got 9 rebounds, you already got your double double let me get my shit”
Terry and Bam argue over stats, team chemistry doesn’t seem great, at least with these 2……….. pic.twitter.com/STO9h94NRG
— valrico cleare (@tootalls) December 9, 2024
Regardless, the Heat defeated the Cavaliers, 122-113.
Missed rebound would have gotten Terry Rozier a double-double
Terry Rozier got his numbers right when he exchanged heated words with Bam Adebayo over the missed board. At the moment of that play, the center already had 16 points and 13 rebounds, while the guard/forward was looking for his tenth.
If Rozier had gotten the defensive board, then he would have also tallied a double-double like Adebayo. However, the Heat’s coaching staff is liable to be unhappy about that heated exchange between the two teammates over a missed rebound, especially since that cost them a win.
Miami Heat needs an ‘aggressive’ Bam Adebayo
Since the 2019-20 NBA season, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has been consistently named in the NBA All-Defensive Team. The Heat have thrived in the past seasons thanks to their star center’s relentless effort in rebounding the ball on both ends of the court.
Adebayo has averaged 9.8 rebounds over the past five seasons. This season, the two-time Olympic gold medalist is currently averaging 10 rebounds per game in addition to 16.0 points and 5.1 assists.
Bam Adebayo shouted back at coach Erik Spoelstra
Prior to beating the Cavaliers yesterday, Bam Adebayo was seen yelling at their coach Erik Spoelstra for a seemingly botched play in Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Suns.
“Spo always gets on us for glitching, and that was one of his glitches, where they’re about to take the ball out, and he yells, ‘Two! Get in a zone,” Adebayo said about the incident, as per Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman.
“And I’m like where you can’t do that in the middle of the play. It just doesn’t help us. And I got the foul for it. So it was one of those things where the next time down court, I barked at him and told him, ‘stop doing it.’”
While a player yelling back at his coach is something generally frowned upon, Spoelstra made sense of the incident.
“I tried to get our team organized into a zone and I messed that up. I called it too late, and he’s yelling at me. I love it,” the coach said.
“I want him taking control of the defense. He is our voice. And every coverage, he was communicating it. Every huddle, he was making sure everybody understood what we were doing and what adjustments we were making. When he’s like that, he’s a special kind of leader,” Spoelstra added.
The Heat won over the Suns on Saturday, 121-111.
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