Bam Adebayo poured in 37 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Giannis Antetokounmpo matched him with 37 of his own, and the Miami Heat pulled away from the Cleveland Cavaliers 133-121 in an NBA Cup group game on Tuesday night.
The performance marked only the second time in franchise history that two Heat players have each scored 37 points in the same game. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were the first pair to do it, back in 2013.
Miami, which won its third straight game, also got a big night from Davion Mitchell, who finished with 22 points and 17 assists, tying his career high. Ryan Conwell chipped in 20 points off the bench for the Heat.
Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with 25 points. Tyrese Proctor added 22, James Harden scored 20, Jaylon Tyson had 16 and Meleek Thomas contributed 12 in the loss.
The Heat played without Klay Thompson, who is dealing with a sprained ankle, and Pelle Larsson, who was out with an illness.
Cleveland was missing forward Evan Mobley, who sat for the first time this season because of a sprained left great toe. Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson downplayed the injury, saying: "The MRI came back clean. Sprained, definitely sore, but we don't expect it to be a long-term thing at all."
The victory moved Miami to 2-0 in group play and put the Heat alone atop the East Group B standings. Miami now controls its path to the knockout stage: winning its remaining group games at Philadelphia and at New York would send the Heat to the quarterfinals, and even splitting those two matchups would leave a strong chance at a wild-card berth.
Cleveland fell to 1-1 in the group and will likely need to win both of its remaining games, at home against Indiana and then on the road at New York, to keep realistic hopes of advancing. No team in NBA Cup history has reached the knockout stage with a group record worse than 3-1.
Both teams return to the floor on Saturday, with the Cavaliers hosting Dallas and the Heat hosting Detroit.
