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Heat took the first game of the three-game set 116-113 Thursday night on the Bulls’ court. It wasn’t easy and it got shaky late when almost all of a 13-point lead was blown, but the Heat survived when Chicago’s Coby White missed a 3-point heave just before the final buzzer. So behind 21 points from Norman Powell and a pair of double-doubles – 20 points and 12 rebounds from Bam Adebayo and 19 points and 10 rebounds from Jaime Jaquez Jr – the Heat turned a lengthy travel day into a needed victory, easing the return trip, with the teams next to meet Saturday and Sunday at Kaseya Center.
As the Heat continues to deal with injury issues, Larsson has started in seven straight games and has started in 26 of his 39 appearances this season. The Heat is 16-10 this season in Larsson’s starts. “We trust Pelle,” Heat captain and three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo said. “Pelle is the guy that we can incorporate him in our starting lineup, and you instantly see the difference. “For organizations and players around the league, you want a guy like Pelle. If he gets 15 [points], that just adds to your offense. But you know what he’s bringing day in, day out.”
NBA Communications: Other nominees… West: Saddiq Bey (NOP), Kevin Durant (HOU), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC), James Harden (LAC) and Naji Marshall (DAL) East: Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell (MIA), Jalen Duren (DET), Jalen Johnson (ATL), Donovan Mitchell (CLE) and Coby White (CHI)
No umbrage taken, said Adebayo, who went for 26 points and 15 rebounds in the victory. “I mean, it definitely’s clearing the air in the room,” Adebayo said of the candor of that Saturday morning session. “All that being said, we like when coach confronts us. It’s just he’s gotta be prepared when we bark back. “We’re all grown men at the end of the day, so we don’t like what he said, we can always have a man-to-man conversation.”
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Jakucionis totaled 17 points, six rebounds and four assists in a Dec. 19 loss to the Boston Celtics and also recorded 12 points, five rebounds and eight assists in a Jan. 15 home loss to the Celtics. During Saturday’s home win against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Jakucionis dished out seven assists to zero turnovers. “He’s trying to do the right thing every play,” Heat center and captain Bam Adebayo said of Jakucionis. “He’s trying to play fast. He’s trying to overcommunicate. When you see a young guy like that, he has a bright future for him because he’s committed to what we’re telling him, what we’re asking of him.”
Bam Adebayo’s basketball resume includes three NBA All-Star appearances, two Olympic gold medals, two NBA Finals appearances, an NBA All-Defensive first-team selection, three NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards and a North Carolina Mr. Basketball trophy. The veteran Miami Heat center/forward is just as proud to add another accolade to his resume for his philanthropic contributions off the court. Adebayo was awarded the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award for December 2025 from the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association today. The nine-year NBA veteran was honored primarily for hosting his annual holiday toy drive and creating experiences for underserved youth through his foundation in December.
The NBA and the NBPA Foundation will donate $20,000 to the Edrice Adebayo Foundation in honor of his efforts. The award is named after late Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, a former NBA star who was an NBA league office executive and NBA Cares ambassador for more than 30 years. “I don’t expect to get a community award because I do it out of love, passion and understanding of where I come from,” Adebayo, 28, told Andscape. “A lot of kids don’t have an opportunity to see somebody in the NBA playing at a high level, being successful and coming from their type of situation. Giving back has always been part of me. “Obviously, it’s a good thing to get recognized. But I never did it for the attention. I did it for the love and the passion for the people.”
“I don’t care about what anybody says about me offensively,” Adebayo made clear. “They’re going to move the goalposts for me every night. If I don’t shoot enough, I’m not being aggressive. Shoot too much, it’s the wrong shot diet. So my teammates, my coaching staff, they know what I’m capable of. Obviously, every shot that I take, I work on all the time. And Spo knows that, Spo sees it. So it’s not a shocker that I shoot certain shots. ... People are looking at my shot chart saying I’m shooting too many threes. But you play the right way and you’re open, he wants you to shoot the ball. So I have enough confidence in myself to shoot that [shot].”
NBA Communications: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Miami Heat center-forward Bam Adebayo have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 13 of the 2025-26 season (Jan. 12-18).
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Entering the Heat’s five-game West Coast trip that begins Monday night against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, Adebayo is averaging 27 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and one steal per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 13 of 23 (56.5 percent) from three-point range over the last three games. This comes after Adebayo was averaging just 11.4 points per game on 37.1 percent shooting from the field and 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) shooting from three-point range over his previous 11 games. “Staying true to myself,” Adebayo said ahead of Monday’s matchup against the Warriors when asked how he snapped out of his recent offensive slump. “You got to quiet the noise a lot. And having somebody on your staff you can talk to. [Heat assistant coach] Caron Butler is somebody that he’s like my big brother. Throughout that stretch of — I wouldn’t even say bad games, just a slump offensively because I didn’t play bad defensively — he was always in my ear. He’s the one person I can really go to and talk about what I’m going through on the court, what he sees.”
If this season is a true reflection of his offense game, then “he’s not really a max player anymore,” an Eastern Conference scout said. “It’s amazing what’s happened with him. The new offensive system hasn’t done him any justice. His offense has regressed. He’s not getting as many assists [2.6 to 4.3 last season]. He’s better in a pick-and-roll-oriented system than what they’re running now.”
