Ever since Bam Adebayo dropped 83 points against the Washington Wizards in a 150–129 win, the performance has become one of the biggest talking points in the NBA world. The historic night even pushed him past Kobe Bryant’s famous 81-point game from 2006.
While many fans celebrated the achievement, the game also brought a wave of criticism from some analysts. Now, former NBA star Paul Pierce has stepped in to defend Adebayo.
Paul Pierce’s Recent Comment Regarding Bam Adebayo
On a recent episode of the “No Fouls Given” podcast, Pierce spoke out for Adebayo. He pushed back against those calling the game shady, saying Adebayo earned every bit of it, no matter the noise.
“But listen, you score 83 in a game, no matter how you get it. I mean, it’s not going nowhere. The story came out the next morning, and it was asterisk you heard words like that… But 10 years from now, all you’re going to remember is he had 83, a man scored 83 in an NBA game. Period. I don’t care if it was me, if I scored 83, I don’t care what level you score 80 on, that’s an accomplishment, bro,” Pierce said in the podcast.
In Adebayo’s case, some critics labeled the game unethical. Much of the criticism focused on his free-throw numbers. Adebayo finished the game with an NBA-record 36 made free throws out of 43 attempts. Many of those came late in the game as the Wizards intentionally fouled to slow the game down during a blowout.
As a result, some critics argued the performance felt forced. Others claimed Adebayo took too many shots or accused him of stat-padding simply to pass Bryant’s famous scoring mark. A few critics also pointed to the Wizards’ poor defense that night and said it made the record less impressive than some of the league’s most iconic scoring games.
SEE ALSO: Bam Adebayo Fires Back at 83-Point Game Critics Who ‘Never Had a Chance’ at ‘Chasing Greatness’
Even with the criticism, the records from that night are hard to ignore. He scored 31 points in the first quarter alone, which ranks among the highest opening-quarter scoring performances in recent NBA seasons.
For comparison, Karl-Anthony Towns once scored 32 points in a quarter for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022. The overall NBA record for most points in a quarter still belongs to Klay Thompson, who famously scored 37 in a single quarter back in 2015.
Adebayo also made history for the Miami Heat. The previous franchise record for points in a first quarter was 25, which had been set by LeBron James in 2014.
By halftime, Adebayo already had 43 points on the board. Over the last three decades, only a small group of players has scored that many points in a single half. Towns once reached 44 in a half, while the record for first-half scoring is 53 points. That mark is shared by David Thompson and George Gervin, who both achieved it on the same day in 1978.
Despite the debates over how the points were scored, the performance still ranks among the most productive scoring nights the league has ever seen.
