With a superb effort, Miami Heat standout Bam Adebayo played a major role in Team USA’s 103-86 victory over South Sudan on Wednesday. Adebayo’s performance, meanwhile, may have been partially responsible for disproving ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s pregame prediction that the big man may be benched because of the team’s plenty of skill.
On the network, Windhorst would speak with Kevin Negandhi, the basketball insider, asking the host what factors contributed to Team USA’s victory over South Sudan. He immediately brought up Adebayo’s performance, even going so far as to say that the Heat player “was all over” him following the game to refute his prediction.
After the game, Windhorst remarked, “Bam Adebayo was all over me because I speculated that he might be the player that sees his minutes reduced to get Tatum back into the game.” The US is winning these games with that second unit, and it is their goal to win the gold medal for a fifth time in a row. Probably more teams cannot compete with that.
Adebayo did more than just add to the game; with eight of his ten field goal attempts and two three-pointers, he finished as Team USA’s top scorer with eighteen points. On Wednesday, he would add seven rebounds, two blocks, and an assist to his stats.
In Brian Windhorst’s initial forecast, Bam Adebayo was benched.
In the beginning, Windhorst would speculate that Adebayo might be benched because Jayson Tatum, a top player for the Boston Celtics, sat out the entire game against Serbia. Since Team USA is stacked with talent and Tatum will play due to matchups, the ESPN analyst would argue that he wouldn’t be the first NBA player benched. This would raise the possibility of Adebayo sitting against South Sudan.
It is inevitable that some elite players will be benched. Windhorst stated on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, “I’ll tell you that.” “I know that fans of Tatum are upset, but I can get their reasoning for acting in this manner. They have a number of athletic wing players that they will use against the South Sudanese on Wednesday. They have to play the perimeter, so they will be switching between all those screens.
“Tatum will be present. He needs to be a perimeter player, Windhorst went on. “Bam Adebayo, for example, could be benched.”
Let’s fast-forward to after the game, when he played for more 20 minutes, which resulted in the aforementioned outstanding performance. Adebayo would turn to social media, posting a GIF in response to Windhorst’s remarks on his X, formerly Twitter, page.
Adebayo discusses the factors that contributed to Team USA’s excellent excursion.
Adebayo would be interviewed by NBC following the game to provide his thoughts on Team USA’s outstanding performance. Even though he had previously stated that he would not be a volume shooter at the Olympics, he would give credit to his teammates for feeding him the ball and allowing him to play his best when he did. This is despite his team-leading performance.
“Smashed the glass hard, got open shots, my teammates just made it easy for me,” Adebayo remarked about his outstanding performance in a post-game interview with NBC. “Merely having the ability to take their shots. I’m not here to grab 20 shots, as I previously stated. But shoot it when I’m free.
Adebayo has frequently discussed his role on Team USA, which includes players like Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and many more. He would argue that his role on the team is not to score as many points as possible, but on days like Wednesday, he might be called upon to do much more than just play excellent defense.
Expect further lineup adjustments soon, with Adebayo remaining a key
Even so, it will take some time for Team USA head coach Steve Kerr to decide on a definitive starting lineup. If Windhorst got anything right, it was Tatum’s prolonged participation, as he and Davis were in the starting lineup. There is no doubt that the lineups will change going ahead, thus Embiid and Jrue Holiday were put to the bench. However, Adebayo must continue to be a force in upcoming games.
Adebayo told NBC, “For us, man, it’s just going out there and playing to the best of our abilities.” “We have some of the world’s best talent.” So it’s simply up to us to compete and perform out there.
In their group round matchup, Team USA will play Puerto Rico on Saturday, August 3. With a 2-0 record, they already have a spot in the quarterfinals next Monday, when they will play in the knockout round. The opponent’s decision to play the USA has not yet been made.
