Is Heat's Bam Adebayo playing vs. Lakers? Latest injury update

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As the Miami Heat face the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night to close out the six-game road trip, they could be without a key piece to the team. With the Heat already missing Jimmy Butler to trade drama, star Bam Adebayo was absent in the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and is again on the injury report for Wednesday’s contest.

Adebayo is currently dealing with lower back contusion and is “questionable” against the Lakers according to the team’s official X, formerly Twitter, and the latest injury report. Here is everything we know about Bam Adebayo’s injury and his playing status vs. the Lakers.

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Bam Adebayo injury status vs. Lakers

The Heat’s captain in Adebayo suffered a back injury in a hard landing during the win over the Portland Trail Blazers last Saturday. With eight minutes and some change left in the second quarter, Nikola Jovic attempted a lob to Adebayo that was a bit off-base where the bug-man in the last minute passed the ball out, but he fell back first on the baseline.

Back on his feet—Bam shakes off a hard landing pic.twitter.com/EeHmfH7llO

— HEAT on FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Heat) January 12, 2025

He would be down in pain for some time until he got back up and walked under his own power which is no doubt a good sign. Adebayo ended up finishing the game, even playing 30 minutes in the contest, but it also made him miss his first game of the season in the loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is saying that Adebayo is “day-to-day” and that before the Clippers contest, it “seized up on him” in the early part of the day. So far this season, Adebayo has been averaging 16.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 28.7 percent from beyond the arc.

"He's been dealing with it for a few days," Spoelstra said when asked about Adebayo’s injury according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. "He's getting a lot of treatment and it kind of seized up on him this morning. We'll treat him day to day and we'll reevaluate him."

Heat missed both Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler

As the numbers may suggest, Adebayo has had shooting struggles this season but has still logged in impressive performances, filling up the stat sheet even if he’s not dominating in the scoring department. His elite defense was sorely missed in the loss to the Clippers and even his offensive presence as Miami couldn’t get anything going in the second half as Spoelstra complimented the opposing defense.

"You have to credit them," Spoelstra said. "They stepped up their pressure. That's what they do. I mean, there were several possessions there at the end of the third, beginning of the fourth, where we couldn't even get into offense."

Because of the absence of Adebayo and of course Butler, it was the Heat’s All-Star hopeful in Tyler Herro who had to carry the offensive load and had another impressive game finishing with 32 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. Still, it would end in a loss and 3-2 on the current road trip.

Who fills in for Bam Adebayo on Heat if out

If Adebayo would not be able to go for the game, one would be able to expect that the Heat’s first-round rookie Kel’el Ware who has been logging in productive minutes. However, Kevin Love got the start in the Clippers loss but only played 15 minutes to Ware’s 33 as he had 19 points and 13 rebounds, his first double-double of his career.

"Toward the end, I was like we got to have some type of spark," Ware said. "So I just started putting up shots."

"Kel'el has been playing really well," Spoelstra continued. "And he had a very good game tonight. … He's making progress. It seems to be every day that he's learning something new."

Even if Ware and Love try to fill in the void if Adebayo is out, it still would be a huge adjustment for the team on the defensive end.

"Defensively, you have great confidence you can get stops when you know he's back there," Spoelstra said. "We have quite a few coverages and he does them all at an elite level.”

Miami is 20-18 which puts them seventh in the Eastern Conference as they play the final outing of the six-game road trip against the Lakers.

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