Hall of Famer center and now NBA analyst for TNT Shaquille O’Neal had some advice for Bam Adebayo with the Miami Heat trailing the Milwaukee Bucks in their first-round series.
Everyone is saying the same thing. Even Shaq said it: “Bam is always just trying to run the play. They’re giving him space. He needs to take a couple of dribbles and collapse the defense.”
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) May 25, 2021
Adebayo has not looked good in Miami’s first two games of the series and the Heat are down 0-2 because of it.
The University of Kentucky product wasn’t aggressive down the stretch of Miami’s Game 1 loss, and he ended up shooting just 4-for-15 in the game.
In Game 2, Adebayo bounced back with 16 points, but he once again wasn’t aggressive. He took just 11 shots in the blowout loss.
The Heat have fallen into a must-win situation in Game 3 in Miami, and they will need to find a way to get Adebayo going.
O’Neal’s comment makes perfect sense, as Adebayo has been too content to run the play instead of making the Bucks’ defense commit to him as a threat to score.
If Adebayo can collapse Milwaukee’s defense and make the Bucks respect him down low, the Heat will have better looks from the outside.
Miami defeated Milwaukee in last year’s playoffs in five games, but they will need at least six to pull off the upset this postseason.
