Exploring Adebayo’s challenges in this series and what the data shows. And Heat notes

The Bucks’ size and skill are giving Bam Adebayo and the Heat’s bigs trouble on both ends of the court, and the results have been twofold:

1. Brook Lopez is on pace for his highest-scoring playoff series (19.3 points per game) in eight years.

2. Adebayo has continued his pattern of scoring three to four points fewer per game in the playoffs than he does in the regular season. Last year, that wasn’t as big an issue. This season, with Tyler Herro shelved by a broken hand, the Heat might need more offense from Adebayo to close out a series that it leads 3-1, with Game 5 on Wednesday in Milwaukee (9:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun).

Adebayo has a strained hamstring but is listed as probable for Game 5.

On offense, Adebayo is averaging 16.8 points, down from his 20.2 regular-season average. Last season, he didn’t approach his 19.1 regular-season scoring average in any of the Heat’s three playoff series. The previous season, his 15.5 playoff scoring average against Milwaukee trailed his 18.7 regular-season average.

In this series, the 6-9 Adebayo’s biggest offensive problems have come when the 7-1 Lopez is guarding him. Adebayo is shooting 19 of 43 against Lopez (44.2 percent), with nine assists and eight turnovers, per the NBA’s tracking data. He’s 10 for 17 against everyone else in this series, including 1 for 2 against Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Adebayo has overcome the height deficit against Lopez more successfully at times in the past. In the regular season, Adebayo shot 26 for 44 (59.1 percent) when defended by Lopez.

On the other end, Lopez and Antetokounmpo are hitting shots at a higher percentage than Adebayo typically allows.

Lopez — who scored 36 points in Game 4 — is shooting 9 for 18 when Adebayo defends him, and Antetokounmpo is 8 for 12 against Adebayo. All other Bucks players are shooting a combined 11 for 30 against Adebayo.

For perspective, consider that among all NBA players who took at least 18 shots against Adebayo during the regular season, only Joel Embiid — over multiple games — made a higher percentage of them (57.9, 11 for 19) than Lopez is doing to him in this series.

Adebayo did a much better job slowing Lopez in their regular season meetings, holding him to 8-for-24 shooting.

In Adebayo’s defense, he had a key steal and assist off an Antetokounmpo turnover, leading to a Jimmy Butler basket that put the Heat ahead for the first time with 3:18 left.

And Adebayo was more aggressive offensively in the second half, after two early fouls limited him to 10 first-half minutes.

After shooting 1 for 4 in the first half, he was 5 for 12 in the second half. He closed Game 4 with 15 points and 8 rebounds. He’s averaging 8.3 rebounds per game in the series.

“Jimmy was really doing it by himself, and we were all trying to contribute,” Adebayo said. “So the biggest thing I could do was try to put the ball in the basket a couple times. It’s one of those things where shots aren’t falling and you just revert back to what got you to this point. That’s being in the gym by yourself, thinking about how many hours you put in.”

Butler put it this way: Stars “impact the game whether or not they’re making shots. Getting stops, getting every rebound, getting a steal, diving on the floor. And that’s what Bam is for us. It’s OK that he’s not making shots. But my goodness whenever his shot does go in, I think everybody’s job is going to be a lot easier. I want that for him. But I don’t want him to press it. I want him to keep playing winning basketball like he has been doing. But every chance you get, fire that bad baby up at the rim. That’s what I do.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Haywood Highsmith, who joined the rotation in Game 4, has allowed Bucks players to shoot just 4 for 14 against him in this series.

Antetokounmpo shot 2 for 6 against him on Monday, and Khris Middleton 0 for 2.

His work in 14 minutes in Game 4 was “really important,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I mentioned that to him right after the game. Actually, it wasn’t just me. A bunch of the guys did. I just feel like we’ve had a lot of different moving parts and then all of a sudden Tyler goes down and Vic [Oladipo] goes down.

“But H just works at it every single day. He’s gotten so much better. It even surprises me how much he’s gotten better over the last two years, and that’s really a credit to his just relentless work ethic. But those minutes are important. You have to have big bodies to be able to either play our zone or have some important minutes against Giannis where he’s not just totally attacking and breaking down your defense.”

▪ Oladipo, after being diagnosed with a torn patellar tendon, told Spoelstra: “Don’t shed any tears for me. I’m going to get through all of this.”

▪ Some national analyst reaction to Butler’s 56-point night:

TNT’s Charles Barkley: “That was the best [playoff] performance I’ve seen since I’ve been on television. It was flat-out incredible. It was an honor and privilege to watch it. That guy was not going to let them lose.”

ESPN’s Tim Legler: “Rarely do you see a guy go off to this extent in scoring where every shot they needed, literally every bucket he got they needed. If they don’t go in, they lose the game. To get to that number while doing that, that’s why what you saw last night is one of the rarest things you’re ever going to see in the NBA.”

ESPN’s Jay Williams: “You need Giannis to guard him every possession.”

▪ NBA teams that take a 3-1 lead in NBA playoff series are 258-13 all time, a 95.2 winning percentage.

▪ Kevin Love remains one of the NBA’s better outlet passers, and it’s a skill the Heat particularly values.

“His passing, there’s just something about it that it becomes contagious because it’s a great fundamental for any young player coming up in this league,” Spoelstra said. “You rebound, the first thing he does is he looks up. And we’ve emphasized it for a long time, but the coaching staff hasn’t been able to get guys to run. But when he rebounds, they run, and that’s a great talent that he has.”

▪ Monday’s victory was Spoelstra’s 99th as a head coach in the playoffs, tying him with Red Auerbach for sixth on the all-time list.

▪ Adebayo, Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson all had steals in the fourth quarter, and the Bucks compounded those four turnovers with 9-for-27 shooting in the fourth quarter.

“They live off turnovers,” Lopez said of the Heat. “Especially in crunch time, they are great at making plays like that.”