Here is what former Kentucky star Bam Adebayo had to say after the Miami Heat lost 117-106 to the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference championship Sunday night (Adebayo had 27 points and was 10 of 14 from the field, 16 rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 37 minutes):
Q. How frustrating is it — another big deficit tonight, how frustrating that this is becoming a trend?
BAM ADEBAYO: We got to start the game how we start the fourth. I feel like we’re not the type of team where we can go through the motions and try and figure out everything in the first half, and then in the third or fourth, we just try to turn it on. It’s not like that. We are not that type of team.
You know, we got to play with detail. I feel like we got to work on our offense a little bit. They got us on our heels. They were out there hooping it up and having fun. I feel like that was the big difference in the game. They jumped out on us, and I guess they got tired of us being down 13 and coming back and winning. We just got to do a better job of not letting ourselves get in a big deficit.
Q. You have been good defensively all postseason long. What was the issue in your eyes on that end of the court, with them scoring 60 paint points?
BAM ADEBAYO: Lacking communication. I said it before the series, this is a series where you have to guard your yard. Sixty points in the paint is not guarding our yard. We want to get back in the gym and figure this out.
Q. Did they have a better plan against the team zone defense?
BAM ADEBAYO: No, I feel like we weren’t in it the first half, and then the second half, we just wanted to turn it on, including me. I’ve got to do a better job of starting the first half way more aggressive than I have. For some reason, second half, I get into this mode and it’s got to be my mode for 48 minutes.
Q. With Gordon Hayward back, we saw more of their smaller lineups. Is that something that you’ll have to adjust to a degree? And if they are going to go small, does that mean more of these type of games for you to take advantage of their smaller lineups?
BAM ADEBAYO: I feel like we just got to execute. We can’t worry about their schemes. We have to execute our plays, and they are going to throw different things at us. You know, Gordon Hayward came in, gave them big minutes. But we’ve got to focus on us and execute our plays.
Q. You were able to make a good run at the end. Tell me about that no-quit attitude that this team has.
BAM ADEBAYO: We got grit. You know, we don’t stop playing until the buzzer hits zero and that’s our mindset, but we can’t keep getting into these deficits and expecting in the fourth for us to turn it on and getting stops. We come back from a 17-point lead and try to figure it out. We have to be desperate from the time the ball gets tipped up until the time that buzzer goes off in the fourth.
Q. With these days coming up leading into the next game, you guys have a little bit more of a break. What do you think you guys are going to do to prepare for the next game?
BAM ADEBAYO: Honestly, we just got to play hard in the first half. But that’s bottom line. You know, I feel like it’s my job for the first unit to get off to a great start. I put that on me. I feel like, you know, I was being passive and I’ve got to be more aggressive.
#BlackLivesMatter, people.
