NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 17, 2020

Bam Adebayo

Miami Heat

Game 2: Postgame

Miami Heat 106, Boston Celtics 101

Q. This is like the seeding game against Boston where you bided your time and took off especially in the third quarter. I think you had seven dunks to 15 points there. Was there a point where you said to yourself, it's go time? Sort of what triggered that Bam out we saw in the first quarter and second half?

BAM ADEBAYO: Coach came up to me in the third, was like, I need All-Defensive team now. From there, I had to start it on defense and then my offense started flowing with it. I give credit to Spo.

Q. And then how much easier does it make it when a guy like Duncan is getting outside early and really sort of opening the floor, also, that sort of yin and yang there?

BAM ADEBAYO: Me and Duncan feed off each other. He gets going early and it opens up lanes for me. If they crash, he just spray the dunk because he’s hot.

Q. This has not been a two-game thing. You've had an ability to come back all year. Is there something about this group that just leads to the opportunity?

BAM ADEBAYO: We got grit. That's about all I can tell you. We got grit, man. I'm happy to be on this team with these guys because everybody here has a different story. We all come from nothing and that's what's beautiful about this team, some guys that come from nothing and guys that have a vision, we're just trying to oversee that vision.

But, we don't want to keep doing that. That is not our goal to be -- to keep being down 12 or 13 points.

Q. Or 17.

BAM ADEBAYO: Even worse. We don't want to do it.

Q. Two-part question for you, but is this what you expected? This team has come out and you guys have gone 10-1 and you've been the most successful team in the playoffs here in the bubble so far, and on top of that, describe the confidence that there is on this team when you can come out and have a third quarter the way that you did, and then the way Butler can step up and the way that he did late or Duncan or Tyler or -- it goes on and on and on with who can come up with big plays.

BAM ADEBAYO: That's the thing about this team. You never know who is going to have a good night. Going into the second half, everybody thought I was checked out. You know, several people in our circle and our staff and our team, they just keep telling me like, you know, it's go time, turn that switch on. I turned that switch on in the second half.

Q. And then just to follow up on that, with your team being 10-1, is this what you expected?

BAM ADEBAYO: To win?

Q. Just to be where you are; the success that you've had coming into these playoffs.

BAM ADEBAYO: Oh, okay. Yeah, you know, we didn't come into these playoffs just to say we got there and it's there. We came to these playoffs trying to win a game. That's the main goal. Keep the main thing the main thing. Everybody wants to win a championship. We keep stacking these wins and hopefully we get to that -- we'll get to that point. But right now, 2-0, we have to keep stacking the Ws.

Q. You've been on Jimmy to be more aggressive, but tonight he made an impact without scoring much. What is it about him that he doesn't need to shoot the ball or score the ball and he can still have an impact like he did tonight?

BAM ADEBAYO: We all trust each other. I was having a rough first half, and I'm in my head, I'm thinking about other things, and you know, my teammates kept talking to me. So you've just got to have trust in each other and I felt like Jimmy has trust in us to make plays and do our things, and he knows -- he knows when he has to get in that mode. He did that without scoring tonight, and he knew that. He did it with defense.

Q. How important is it not to let up at this point?

BAM ADEBAYO: That's our job, that's the bottom line. We got a good -- good balance of players. Young players who are happy to be up 2-0 and you've got the veterans who have been up 2-0 against a team that has come back.

We have a good balance of guys to shut that off and just focus on every game.

Q. It seems like this bubble environment is a great fit for the Heat.

BAM ADEBAYO: That's when your competitive nature comes out. You don't got the crowd and you don't got a lot of family and you've got your team. So your team brings that energy, you bring that energy, and that's how we -- that's how we truly win, man. I feel like I said it from the beginning; I feel like the Miami Heat are built for the bubble.

Q. There was a couple moments where it seemed like you were kicked or pushed trying to get away from a defender. Were things a little chippy or just the nature of the game?

BAM ADEBAYO: At the end of the day, nobody is going to -- well, I feel like, nobody should be able to push you over or do something and get away with it, but that's just bringing the competition out of everybody. It might get a little chippy in a game. You know, you feed off that have type of energy.

Q. Zone is nothing new for this group and worked well. What is it about the zone that's worked well in this series so far?

BAM ADEBAYO: I feel like the zone, it's in active hands. You know, everybody is on a string, that's the thing, and the thing about zone, you've got to communicate and that's what we love about zone. It makes us communicate and we’re just getting our job done.

Q. Just to follow up, you mentioned you don't like being down double figures, but obviously the pick-and-roll benefitted you tremendously tonight in that third period. What is it like when you're able to chip away at that double-figure lead to get you guys back in it?

BAM ADEBAYO: It's one of those things, man, you have to look at each other and go, we can't go out like this. I refuse to just let somebody just take the lead. I'm going to fight to the end. We kept fighting and we clawed back and once we got that next energy and that spark, it just went up from there.

Q. Duncan had six solid three-pointers tonight. His journey to the NBA was unconventional coming from a DIII school and he's contributed in big ways in the season and not just in the bubble. Did you expect such big things from Robinson when you first acquired him?

BAM ADEBAYO: I did, because I was on Duncan's Summer League team when he first got here. Duncan then is not the same Duncan now, obviously. But to see how hard he worked -- I always share this story. When he first got here and we'd warm up for games, Duncan would be sitting on the sideline with Chris Quinn, and then Chris went, didn't have a ball and then it was just get up -- he's like, all right, shoot threes and he would miss; he would sit down.

So it was kind of like him getting yanked for missing a shot. You know, constantly doing that and now you see the type of -- the type of player he is now. He's not scared of the moment. He makes those type of big shots and we want him to keep shooting.

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