For the second time in less than a week, two separate players made a run at scoring history. On Monday, Joel Embiid reached 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs while Karl-Anthony Towns got to 62 against the Charlotte Hornets, but on Friday, two other superstars managed to top them.
Devin Booker put up 62 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers... and wasn't even the leading scorer of the night. Luka Doncic topped him and everyone else this season with a 73-point masterpiece in a 148-143 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. The total now ties David Thompson for the fourth-most in league history, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain (100), Kobe Bryant (81) and Chamberlain again (78). Chamberlain had two other 73-point games. We have now seen four players in total reach 70 in the past two seasons: Doncic, Embiid, Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard.
Early in the fourth quarter, it seemed as though Doncic might make a real run at Bryant's 81. He had 65 with 10:23 remaining on the clock, but the Hawks did everything in their power to slow him down from there. Doncic shrugged, didn't force anything, and finished the game with seven assists. His teammates carried much of the fourth-quarter load, but Doncic was still able to make history with 73.
So what can we take away from these offensive explosions? Here are three thoughts:
The opposing defense matters... but so does the offense
This might seem obvious, but you're not putting up 60-plus points against a great defense. Look at who this week's best performances came against. Towns got 62 against the 30th-ranked defense (Charlotte). Booker got his 62 against No. 27 (Indiana). Doncic put up 73 against No. 26 (Atlanta). Embiid got to 70 against No. 25 (San Antonio).
Here's the twist though... most of those other teams can at least score. The Pacers have the best offense in the NBA (though they were without conductor Tyrese Haliburton Friday). The Hawks are an above-average offense. Charlotte and San Antonio are ranked near the bottom of the league, but they have ascending young stars that can put points on the board in LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Victor Wembanyama.
A lot of things need to go right to hit point totals like this. You have to be facing a miserable defense, but that opponent also needs to be able to keep the game close so you can stay in the game and continue racking up points. Booker and Towns even lost their games on this principle. Both of them blew fourth-quarter leads. The modern NBA facilitates scoring, but for one player to reach 60 or 70 points, that scoring can't just come from them. It needs to come from everybody on the court. Tonight, it did, and we saw history as a result.
Why does 81 seem to be the magic number?
As we covered, we've now seen four 70-point scorers in the past two seasons... but none of them have gone above 73. Bryant's 81 seems to be something of a magic number for modern scoring. Players are getting closer and closer to it, but none have surpassed it. All of them seem to fade at the finish line. So what's going on here?
Well, there are two primary reasons for that. The first is simple: they get tired. Do yourself a favor and watch Lillard's magnificent 70-piece from last season. In the closing possessions, he's turning down the ball. Why? Because the amount of energy it takes to score 70 points, especially out of a guard who isn't getting easy looks near the rim, is absolutely enormous. Those last few points are by far the hardest to get.
If you look at the play-by-play of Bryant's 81-point game, you'll notice he didn't make a field goal in the final three minutes and 25 seconds. His last seven points all came at the line. In fact, he made 12 free throws in the fourth quarter alone to reach 81. Asking exhausted players to keep scoring when they've reached 70 might be a bit unrealistic.
The second relates to opposing defenses. Booker got 29 of his 62 in a single quarter tonight. Once Indiana adjusted and started throwing doubles at him, he had to start passing. The Suns countered with their small-ball, five-shooters lineup, but that's only a short-term solution because of the problems it causes on defense and on the glass.
Dallas, missing Kyrie Irving tonight, didn't really have such an option. The Hawks started doubling Doncic on screens early in the second half. He still found offense, but he lost several opportunities to take shots because the best play on the board for him was an obvious pass.
Opposing defenses don't want to give up 80 points to a single player. To reach that threshold, you probably need to be in a situation like Booker was with his small-ball lineup: five shooters on the floor that make doubling practically impossible. Few teams can do that to the degree that Phoenix does now. Maybe eventually they will, and that will be what it takes to finally catch Kobe.
A few other notable bits of history from Friday
We may not have seen either Doncic or Booker get to 81 points on Friday, but we did see some other history in both of their games. Here are a few other notable nuggets from their outbursts:
- Doncic may not have reached 81 points, but he did tie another Kobe record from that night. He and Josh Green (who scored 21) combined to score 94 points. That ties the post-merger record set by Kobe Bryant and Smush Parker for most combined points in a game by two teammates. They had 94 in Kobe's 81-point game.
- Doncic set the State Farm Arena record with 73 points tonight, while Booker set the Gainbridge Fieldhouse record in Indianapolis with 62. The two of them now hold the record for six of the NBA's 30 arenas. Doncic holds the American Airlines Center record in Dallas with 60. Booker holds the TD Garden record in Boston with 70, the Vivint Arena record in Salt Lake City with 59, and the Footprint Center record in Phoenix with 58.
- Their combined 135 points is now the third most in NBA history that two players have ever combined for on a single day. The record belongs to Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor, who combined for 141 on Dec. 9, 1961, and the No. 2 slot is held by David Thompson and George Gervin, who combined for 136 on April 9, 1978.
