Was Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game legit? We compared it to Wilt’s 100, Kobe’s 81, and Embiid’s 70. Here’s what we found.

As soon as Bam Adebayo checked out of the Miami Heat’s 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards, the integrity of his 83-point performance was up for debate.

The Heat forward scored the second-most points in a game in NBA history on Tuesday night, surpassing the late Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006. Adebayo’s performance is second to Wilt Chamberlain’s legendary 100-point game with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1962.

But would Adebayo have been able to score 83 points without a record-setting number of trips to the free-throw line? Adebayo, whose previous career high of 41 points came in January of 2021, scored 36 points (on 43 attempts) at the line on Tuesday, setting NBA single-game records for both free throws made and free throws attempted.

Foul shots accounted for 43.4% of Adebayo’s points against the lottery-bound Wizards, who have now lost nine straight.

“First thing you think is, ‘How?’” Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said when asked about Adebayo’s performance. “I saw he only made six threes, but 40 free throws or something like that. [That] tells the story right there. And the Washington Wizards.”

The Heat also drew criticism for intentionally fouling to get the ball back from the Wizards as they held the lead late in the fourth quarter. Adebayo entered the final two minutes of the fourth quarter with 79 points, and the Head led by 27.

The Heat committed four fouls within five seconds of the Wizards gaining possession in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, drawing out the game so that Adebayo could try and reach 80.

He matched Bryant’s 81-point game on a pair of makes at the free-throw line with 1:37 remaining and scored his final points of the night on two more free throws with 1:16 to go. The final seven of Adebayo’s 83 points came from the free-throw line.

Some critics of his performance, including Sixers wing Kelly Oubre Jr., were simply “kind of salty” that Adebayo passed Bryant in the history books.

Oubre also spoke up for his teammate, Joel Embiid, who is one of 11 players in league history to score at least 70 points in a single game. Embiid scored 70 in a 2024 win over the Spurs in 36 minutes of playing time.

“It’s definitely legendary, the box score, right?” Oubre Jr. said Tuesday. “The number, and shoutout to Bam, right? He’s just implementing himself in history. I’m kind of salty that he bested Kobe. He’s one of my favorite players, for sure.

“But I’m going to just say this, man, Joel did it efficiently, and he did it in three quarters.”

With those criticisms in mind, how does Adebayo’s 83-point game stack up against some of the NBA’s other legendary scoring outputs? The Inquirer crunched the numbers to find out.

Of the 11 players to score 70 or more points in a game, Chamberlain is the only player to accomplish the feat more than once. Chamberlain reached or surpassed the 70-point mark six times, including his 100-point game in 1962 that still stands as a league record.

Chamberlain got to the free-throw line frequently throughout his career, as opponents used intentional fouls as a defensive strategy against the center from Overbrook High. He took 34 trips to the line in a February 1962 game, which stood as the league record for attempts until 2012. But most of his points during his 100-point game were not from the line.

Chamberlain, a historically bad free-throw shooter who changed to an underhand form for one season only (1961-62), made 28 free throws (on 32 attempts) to reach 100 points. Chamberlain scored his remaining 72 points from the floor, something no other player has done in league history. He also scored his 100 without the assistance of the three-point line, which was first implemented in 1979.

Bryant’s 81-point game also holds up with free throws removed. The Lower Merion product scored 63 of his 81 points from the floor. Removing free throws from the NBA’s top scoring performances, Chamberlain and Bryant’s games sit at No. 1 and No. 2 on the leader board.

The same can’t be said for Adebayo, whose 83-point game sinks from second to 89th with free throws removed.

And while Bryant built up a reputation as a volume shooter by the end of his career, his 81-point performance came on an efficient 60.9% shooting from the field. He was 28 of 46 in the Lakers’ win over Toronto.

Unlike Chamberlain, Bryant’s total was aided by seven made three-pointers. Adebayo also made seven threes on Tuesday, but shot 31.8% on 22 attempts — two shots shy of matching Klay Thompson’s single-game record of 24.

In his 81-point game, Bryant shot 53.8% from beyond the arc.

As for Oubre’s claim that Embiid’s 70-point game was more efficient than Adebayo’s 83?

Embiid scored 49 of his 70 from the field and shot 58.5%. Embiid made one three, tied with David Robinson for fewest in a 70-point game since the three-point line was introduced. And while Oubre said “he did it in three quarters,” Embiid appeared in all four quarters despite playing on 36 minutes.

When removing free throws, Embiid scored two more points than Adebayo and shot 12 percentage points better from the field. And while Embiid was facing a similarly bad Spurs team, no fouling shenanigans took place.

Regardless of how he got there, Adebayo’s 83-point performance will remain in the NBA’s record books for years to come. But the stats show there might be some truth to the idea that Adebayo’s record-setting performance was overly reliant on free throws.