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"Bam has been playing incredibly well this
entire playoffs, for sure this series, and this one he got the
toughest matchup by far on the defensive side of the ball," Heat
forward Jimmy Butler told reporters on Tuesday.
"And on the offensive end, he's doing everything for us. We need
him to continue to be that.
"Like I said, he's going to be the reason why we win a
championship."
Adebayo said the key to guarding two-time MVP Jokic was limiting
his passing, a bright spot for the Heat in Game Two where the
Serb scored 41 points but was held to just four assists.
The Heat squeaked into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's
eighth seed and have since been giant slayers, taking down the
top-seeded Bucks, the Knicks and the Celtics with gritty team
wins to reach the finals.
Adebayo offered no apologies for their gritty style.
"Everybody thinks basketball is always supposed to be pretty,
it's supposed to be fluid," he said.
"That's not how we do it. It's rugged, it's in the mud, it's
nasty basketball. We don't care how it looks. It gets wins."
More than anything, Adebayo and the Heat are motivated by the
opportunity to atone for their Finals loss to the Los Angeles
Lakers in the NBA bubble in 2020.
"Just sitting there, seeing the confetti fall and none of this
is for us," he said, shaking his head.
"And you walk back into the locker room. That was a gut punch."
Game Three is on Wednesday in Miami.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Shri
Navaratnam)
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