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After missing the previous two games, former Kentucky star Bam Adebayo returned to the Miami Heat lineup Tuesday and had 15 points, seven rebounds, one assist and one steal in 33 minutes in a 102-96 loss to Miami.
“Physically still not a hundred percent, but I was moving well and getting back to a hundred percent,” Adebayo said after the win. “I feel like collectively we all need two days off. It’s not just me, but we all need a couple days just to readjust, realign, get some fresh air and get back to the drawing board.”
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Adebayo passed all the “protocols” with his mobility and strength to be able to play and hopefully will play again in Game 5 Friday.
“I thought he was great considering he hasn’t played in a week or hasn’t really done anything other than rehab,” the Miami coach said. “But he’s the heart and soul of who we are. So it was just great to have him back out there, and I don’t have to deal with him trying to stare a hole through me anymore.”
Don’t doubt that Adebayo will play in Friday’s elimination game.
“I mean, our backs are against the wall. It’s not like it’s never been done before. We still got hope, we are still going to grind to the end, start to finish,” the former Wildcat said.”We just can’t have so many pockets of undisciplined basketball. I feel like that dictated the game a lot. We had certain spurts where it was early shots in the shot clock and giving up easy baskets in transition. So we just got to get back to the drawing board and just figure out solutions.”
