MIAMI — As teammates were staring down opponents during his two-week absence, Bam Adebayo found himself with what he considered a far more challenging adversary.
In that regard, the ninth-year center was glad to be competing Wednesday night against anyone besides Heat trainer Wes Brown.
Sidelined for six games by the toe sprain sustained in the first quarter of the Nov. 5 road loss to the Denver Nuggets, Adebayo said he was at his happiest when he was on the court for Wednesday night’s 110-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors at Kaseya Center — and therefore beyond the grasp of his team’s trainer.
“Now, listen,” Adebayo said in the wake of his 20-point, seven-rebound night, “I love Wes Brown, our head trainer, to death, but I hate being injured with him, ’cause we’ll do four sets of eighty reps.
“That’s one of those things where I would much rather play injured than do rehab with him. Love you, Wes. But it’s difficult sitting over there, watching your team battle and compete and you want to be out there, and you feel like you can impact winning. So it’s difficult from that standpoint.”
To a degree, it was somewhat equally difficult for coach Erik Spoelstra to maintain his gameplan with Adebayo against a scrappy effort from a Golden State rotation lacking almost all of its stars on a planned rest night.
The final clocking for Adebayo in his first action back was 28:48.
“Don’t ask the performance staff. He played that much?” Spoelstra said afterward, believing the load was less. “I never played him extended minutes in a row. He was able to handle it. The work that he did behind the scenes prepared him for this. I wanted to make sure that first number was a two, OK?”
It was, 72 seconds shy of a 30-minute outing.
Through it all, Adebayo emerged ready to move forward, with the Heat moving on to a two-game trip that opens with an NBA Cup matchup Friday night against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
“I felt good, man,” Adebayo said, “just trying to find a rhythm, not overdo it, letting the game come to me, and it did at some point.”
Included in Adebayo’s effort was a run of nine consecutive Heat points in the fourth quarter that helped his team finally break it open.
“He just does so many things for a basketball team,” Spoelstra said of his team captain. “Defensively, while he was on the floor, I bet the numbers were pretty dang good. That’s not a coincidence. And offensively, he just really fits his strengths, because he’s really good at a lot of different things. And if you just limit it to one or two things, that’s not really fully maximizing his skill set.
“But it was great to have him back for sure.”
The presence, teammates said, was tangible.
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“Not just his activity and what he does and what he brings, but just a steady, vocal leader on the defensive end, talking, getting the guys in positions, making sure that the coverages are right, that’s really big,” said guard Norman Powell, who combined with Adebayo to score 26 of the Heat’s final 29 points “We know that he’s going to bring the energy. We know that he’s going to bring that effort on both sides of the ball. But his voice, being on the court — he was vocal on the sidelines, waiting for his return, which is also great — but having him on the floor and kind of controlling the defense is huge for us.
“So we definitely missed him and glad to have him back.”
For the Heat, getting Adebayo back was a step forward in an attempt to hold it together until the roster is whole, with guard Tyler Herro expected to make his return next week from his September ankle surgery.
“We love to have Bam back, great presence for us, always being able to just settle us down when we need him, get stops, get rebounds,” forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “It’s always great to have a player like that back on your team.”
The impact, forward Andrew Wiggins said, was instant.
“He’s a big factor on the court,” Wiggins said. “You can feel it immediately when he steps on the court, offensively, defensively. We definitely needed that. As soon as he steps on the floor, it makes us so much better.”
