Bam Adebayo shakes off 'scapegoat' label, leads Heat past Hawks for first win of the season after 0-4 start

Bam Adebayo seems to have found his shot.

The Miami Heat star, days after saying he felt like the team's "scapegoat" amid their losing streak, led the franchise to their first win of the new season on Wednesday night. He dropped a season-high 24 points while shooting 8 of 16 from the field to carry the Heat to a 129-117 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the State Farm Arena, which ended their four-game losing skid.

Adebayo had nine rebounds, too, which brought him to 5,794 in his career. That broke Udonis Haslem's all-time franchise record.

The Heat led for most of the first half, after a bit of back-and-forth to start, and took a 13-point lead into the locker room — thanks in part to a wild half-court buzzer-beater from Nikola Jović, who looked just as stunned as everyone else inside State Farm Arena.

Adebayo had 13 of his 24 points in the first half while shooting 5 of 9 from the field.

The Heat didn't let up in the third quarter, and Adebayo added nine more to keep their lead at 12. They were up by 18 at one point, but the Hawks closed the half on a 7-2 run in about 90 seconds, capped by an Andrew Wiggins 3-pointer in the final moments of the period.

Though the Hawks cut it to just four points midway through the fourth quarter, that was as close as they got. The Heat responded with seven straight points to take control of the contest and secure the 12-point win.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had a triple-double in the loss on Monday, finished with 24 points and 18 rebounds in the win for the Heat. Andrew Wiggins added 18 points. The Heat ended up shooting 53% from the field.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the Hawks with 23 points while draining five from behind the arc. Rookie Kingston Flemings added 23 points off the bench, and CJ McCollum finished with 13 points. The Hawks have lost three straight and now sit at 2-3 on the season.

While it was only four games, the Heat's winless start to the season led to plenty of questions about the franchise that made a blockbuster move to bring in Antetokounmpo this past offseason. Adebayo looked, well, rough in the first stretch of the season, too. He averaged just 11.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest over the first four games, all well down from his numbers last season. Adebayo even had an 83-point outing back in March .

After their loss to the Mavericks on Monday night, he said he felt like the "scapegoat" and was getting all of the blame for the team's struggles.

"You know, it's funny how the outside noise wants to make me the scapegoat," he said on Monday. "But when the tables turn, just all that energy, when the energy shifts, just be prepared for that."

As it turns out, it didn't take long for the energy to shift. Adebayo had his best game of the season just 48 hours later, and the Heat now have a tick in the win column.