Luka Dončić dropped 60 points on Thursday to power the Los Angeles Lakers to a 134-126 road win over Bam Adebayo’s Miami Heat on the second night of a back-to-back.
While the standout performance marked Dončić’s Lakers career-high, Adebayo’s historic yet divisive 83-point game nine days earlier cast subsequent scoring eruptions in a different light. As such, the Heat star made sure to hammer home the significance of his accomplishment with a cheeky postgame remark.
Bam Adebayo Takes Subtle Jab at Luka Dončić’s 60-Point Eruption Against Heat
Dončić was firing on all cylinders against Miami, particularly in the second half, recording 39 of his 60 points against a helpless Heat defense. The six-time All-Star finished 18-for-30 overall (60%), drilling 9 of 17 3-pointers (52.9%).
Dončić even garnered MVP chants from Miami’s home crowd late as he reached the 60-point mark at the free-throw line, becoming the first Laker to do so since franchise legend Kobe Bryant in 2016.
While Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admitted postgame that his team wasn’t “active enough” trying to get the ball out of Dončić’s hands, Adebayo reveled in the fact that the Lakers superstar still came up 23 points short of his career-high.
On March 10, Adebayo improbably scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards, surpassing Bryant (81 points) for the second-highest scoring tally in league history. While the three-time All-Star faced immense backlash for achieving the feat in a blowout win against an NBA bottom-feeder, he has since kept his head held high, remaining adamant that the milestone deserves respect.
After falling to LA, Adebayo seized another opportunity to remind the NBA world of the difficulty of scoring 80-plus points, slyly downplaying Dončić’s big night.
“He hit some tough shots out there. It is what it is. I know what it’s like to be in that mode,” Adebayo said with a smile. “As people can see, it’s not easy to get 80.”
“I know what it’s like to be in that mode, … as people can see it’s not easy to hit 80.”
—Bam Adebayo after Luka dropped 60 PTS vs. the Heat 👀 pic.twitter.com/AS9f7BG9mX
— ESPN (@espn) March 20, 2026
Still, Adebayo noted that he has grown “frustrated” with the Heat’s season-long inconsistencies after dropping three straight games to fall to eighth in the Eastern Conference (38-32).
“It’s frustrating because, like I’ve said, we’ve beaten some of the top teams in each conference, but we’ve also, at some point, lost to the worst teams in both conferences,” Adebayo vented.
While Dončić didn’t come close to threatening Adebayo’s monumental scoring feat or his own career-high (73 points), the Lakers (45-25) came away with their eighth consecutive victory as the sides trend in opposite directions approaching the playoffs.
