Bam Adebayo scored a career-high 41 points on Saturday against Brooklyn.
Get ready for Monday’s NBA TV doubleheader with five key stats to know about each matchup.
Heat (6-9) at Nets (10-8), 7:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV
• The Nets got their first win with the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden sharing the court on Saturday against Miami. The Nets are 1-2 since Irving returned to the lineup. Durant has averaged a team-best 34.5 ppg, followed closely by Irving’s 34.3 ppg, while Harden has averaged 17.3 ppg and a team-best 11.3 apg.
• In Saturday’s game against Brooklyn, Miami’s Bam Adebayo scored a career-best 41 points on 14-20 shooting. The last Heat player to score at least 40 points on 70% shooting or better was Jimmy Butler in Game 3 of the 2020 NBA Finals. Prior to that, it was LeBron James in March 2014.
• DeAndre Jordan (4:50 matchup time) and Jeff Green (3:15 matchup time) were the primary defenders on Bam Adebayo on Saturday. Adebayo scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting against Jordan and had 17 points on 6-8 FG, 5-5 FT against Green.
• Brooklyn enters the week as the highest scoring team in the NBA, averaging 120.3 points per game, while Miami ranks 21st at 109.3 ppg. The Nets own the top true shooting percentage in the NBA at 61.3%, which would be the top mark since at least 1996-97. The only team to post a TS% above 60% for a season since 1996-97 was the 2017-18 Warriors (60.3%).
• Since the Nets acquired James Harden, Joe Harris has averaged 6.5 open 3-point attempts per game – with the closest defender at least four feet away. Harris is shooting 14-26 (53.8%) on those open looks. Prior to the Harden acquisition, Harris averaged 4.5 open 3-point attempts per game.
Timberwolves (4-11) at Warriors (8-8), 10:00 p.m. ET, NBA TV
• This is the first ever meeting between the top two picks in the 2020 NBA Draft – No. 1 Anthony Edwards of the Wolves and No. 2 James Wiseman of the Warriors. They rank the same way in rookie scoring with Edwards first (12.1 ppg) and Wiseman second (11.8 ppg). Wiseman also leads all rookies in blocks (1.4 rpg) and ranks second in rebounds (6.1 rpg).
• The shorthanded Timberwolves snapped a four-game losing streak on Saturday with a 120-110 win over New Orleans. Naz Reid matched his career high with 20 points; Jarred Vanderbilt posted career highs of 16 points and 11 boards; and rookie Anthony Edwards had 18 points, his highest scoring game since his career-high 26 on Jan. 7.
• Stephen Curry leads the Warriors in scoring at 27.9 points per game (4th in NBA), followed by Andrew Wiggins at 17.4 ppg. The 10.5 ppg gap between Golden State’s first- and second-leading scorers is the second largest in the NBA. The only larger gap comes from Washington, where league-leading scorer Bradley Beal (34.5 ppg) averages 16.5 more points than the Wizards’ second-leading scorer Russell Westbrook (18.0).
• On Saturday, Stephen Curry passed Reggie Miller for second place on the NBA career 3-point list. With 2,562 career triples entering this week, Curry trails Ray Allen by 411 for the all-time record of 2,973. At his current pace (4.2 3s per game), Curry would need 98 games to catch Allen.
• The Wolves allow the second-highest field goal percentage at the rim this season (66.9%), while the Warriors allow the eighth-lowest (60.2%).
