Heat’s Bam Adebayo shines to help Team USA clinch spot in Olympic quarterfinals

Bam Adebayo entered his second Olympic experience knowing it would be different from the first one and he hasn’t been wrong.

The Miami Heat’s three-time All-Star center has been used as a reserve this time around after starting in all six games during the national team’s 2021 run to the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

But one thing hasn’t changed: Adebayo continues to play an important role for Team USA during the Paris Games.

Adebayo again played off the bench in Team USA’s 103-86 victory over South Sudan on Wednesday in Lille, France and he again contributed quality minutes.

Adebayo scored a team-high 14 points in the first half to finish the win with a team-high 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes to go with seven rebounds and one assist in 21 minutes. He was also again a defensive force, recording one steal and two blocks while providing his usual elite one-on-one defense and showcasing his ability to guard every position on the court.

“Crashing the glass hard, getting open shots, my teammates just making it easy for me,” Adebayo said of his big performance during a post-game interview with NBC. “Just being able to make shots for them. Like I said, I’m not here to get 20 shots up. But when I’m open, shoot it.”

The two three-point makes against South Sudan were the continuation of an encouraging trend for Adebayo, who shot 14 of 28 (50 percent) from three-point range during his final 17 games for the Heat this past regular season. He shot just 1 of 14 (7.1 percent) on threes through his first 54 appearances last regular season prior to this hot stretch.

Adebayo closed Wednesday’s victory with an impressive plus/minus of plus 22. Team USA has now outscored opponents by 31 points in the 41 minutes that Adebayo has played during the first two games of the 2024 Olympics.

Adebayo’s role essentially stayed the same against South Sudan despite Team USA making tweaks to its rotation, which national team head coach Steve Kerr has said will change during the Olympics depending on the opponent.

For Wednesday’s matchup against the perimeter-oriented South Sudan squad, Anthony Davis and Jayson Tatum moved into the starting lineup and Joel Embiid and Jrue Holiday moved to the bench. Davis and Tatum started alongside LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Devin Booker.

With Team USA using a 10-man rotation in Sunday’s win over Serbia to kick off the Olympics, Tyrese Haliburton and Tatum were the two players from the 12-man national team roster who didn’t play in that contest.

But Team USA went with an 11-man rotation on Wednesday. Embiid, who started in the first game of the Olympics, was the only one who did not get on the court against South Sudan.

Team USA is now 2-0 in group play. With Wednesday’s win, Team USA clinched first place in its group and clinched a spot in the final eight to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Team USA plays its third and final game of the group phase on Saturday against Puerto Rico (11:15 a.m., NBC) before opening the knockout rounds of the Olympics in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The start time and opponent for Team USA’s quarterfinal game has not yet been determined.

“For us, man, it’s just going out there and playing to the best of our abilities,” Adebayo said to NBC. “We got some of the greatest talents in the world. So just for us to go out there and compete and execute.”

JOVIC CONTRIBUTES TO SERBIA’S WIN

The other current Heat player competing in the 2024 Olympics is Nikola Jovic. The 21-year-old forward was also in action on Wednesday, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes off the bench for Serbia in a 107-66 blowout win over Puerto Rico.

Jovic scored nine of his 10 points in Wednesday’s second half.

Jovic is still working his way back to form after recently returning from an ankle injury suffered in June during an offseason workout in Miami. He totaled five points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 14 minutes to open the Olympics for Serbia in Sunday’s loss to Team USA.

“I’m doing great,” Jovic said to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press when asked about his health and decision to play in the Olympics despite the recent ankle issue. “I haven’t done a lot, but I really wanted to be with the team and coach [Erik Spoelstra] and everybody from the front office was good with it. The imaging was great. My foot looked great. Maybe I’m not in the best shape right now, but when you step on the court, the adrenaline and everything brings the best out of me. I’ll do whatever I can to help this team win and I’ll for sure be ready for the season.”

Even after Wednesday’s win, Serbia (1-1 during group play) still hasn’t punched its ticket to the knockout rounds. But Serbia is now in a good position to advance past the three-game group phase.

Serbia and Jovic can clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament with a win in its final game of group play — Saturday against South Sudan at 3 p.m. There’s also a chance that Serbia would advance to the knockout rounds even with a loss on Saturday, but it would need some help from other teams for that to happen.