Watch Miami Heat @ Boston Celtics Game 5 live on Sky Sports Mix (Ch 416) in the early hours of Saturday morning (1:30am)
Friday 25 September 2020 11:48, UK
Bam Adebayo said he and his Miami Heat team-mates are unified in their goal of winning the NBA championship and "don’t care who gets the glory" for game-winning individual performances.
The Heat can earn their first appearance in the NBA Finals since 2014 when they face the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in the early hours of Saturday morning (1:30am), live on Sky Sports Mix (Ch 416).
Speaking to TNT's Rebecca Haarlow, Adebayo, who suffered an apparent left wrist injury during Miami's Game 4 win on Wednesday night, confirmed he is good to go for Game 5.
"I'm good, a little shaken up, but good. I'll be playing," he said. "People have said a lot I am the heart and soul of this team. When you have that type of responsibility, you have got to back that up. Throughout these playoffs I have been back it up and I've got to continue to do that."
One feature of the Heat's 11-2 postseason run has been the depth of their roster and the number of game-winners they have available to step up and lead their offense on a given night.
The leader Jimmy Butler is averaging 20.8 points per game in the playoffs but it is veteran point guard Goran Dragic who is the team's leading scorer at 21.3 points per game.
In the Eastern Conference Finals alone, the Heat have had three different players lead their scoring output across the first four games of the series. In Games 1 and 2, Dragic led the way while Adebayo himself scored a team-high 27 in Game 3. In Game 4, it was 20-year-old rookie Tyler Herro who led Miami with 37 points.
The only 20-year-old to score more points in a playoff game than Herro was Magic Johnson (42) of the Los Angeles Lakers in the clinching Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals versus the Philadelphia 76ers.
"It just shows how versatile our team is," Adebayo said. "You never know who is going to have the (big) night. It's unexpected. That's what I like about the team. The beautiful thing about it is we are not afraid to keep feeding the 'hot hand'.
"We don't care who gets the glory. We want to win. At the end of the day, we all have one goal and that's to win the championship."
NBA wisdom states that close-out games are the hardest to win and Adebayo admitted Game represents a tough assignment for the Heat.
"You don't know what to expect (from Boston in Game 5) because their backs are against the wall," he said. "For us, we just need to go out there and take one possession at a time, make sure we get shots on goal and keep playing the defense.
"I feel we have another level we can get to where we can play 48 minutes of Miami Heat basketball."
Watch Miami Heat @ Boston Celtics Game 5 live on Sky Sports Mix (Ch 416) in the early hours of Saturday morning (1:30am)
