On Monday night, reigning MVP Joel Embiid scored 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs, an NBA season record… that lasted four nights before Luka Doncic scored 73 to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a victory against the Atlanta Hawks (coincidentally, the team that drafted Doncic before trading him to Dallas).
The same night Embiid scored 70, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 62 points in a loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a feat that was matched on Friday night, when Devin Booker did his best to keep pace with Doncic, scoring also 62 in a loss to the Indiana Pacers.
It is the first time in the NBA's 77-season history that four different players have scored at least 60 points in a game over a five-night span. After there were a total of four 70-point contests between 1964 and 2022, there have now been four in the last 390 days.
So what is driving this incredible scoring result? And how far can NBA players go? Is Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game still untouchable? We asked our NBA experts to break it down.
1. What drives these big scoring nights?
Chris Herring: It's a perfect combination of all-time efficiency and astronomical usage rate (and astronomical 3-point line usage) with games being played at a high pace. Defenses are more spread out than ever trying to protect 7-footers beyond the 3-point line.
And it leaves them with little to no chance in one-on-one scenarios against players like Embiid and Doncic, who lead the league in the proportion of offensive possessions that end with them controlling the ball. It's not lost on me that Doncic, who already handles the ball a league-high 8.5 minutes per game, scored 73 on a night when co-star Kyrie Irving was out, and that Towns had 62 on a night in the one Anthony Edwards wasn't there. himself because of an illness. Those extra opportunities make a difference when league-wide shooting efficiency is the highest it's ever been.
Tim MacMahon: There are many reasons, but number one on the list is that the NBA has never seen so much skill. We've never seen anyone with Doncic's combination of size, strength, craftiness, handle, footwork and touch, allowing him to comfortably create his own shot anywhere within 30 feet of the rim. Karl-Anthony Towns has proclaimed himself the greatest shooter of all time, and while most would give the nod to Dirk Nowitzki, KAT can make a statistical argument. Joel Embiid is a 7-foot-2, 280-pound center who makes mid-range jumpers look like layups. The same goes for Devin Booker, who is powerful whether creating for himself or playing without the ball. And modern schemes give these stars room to show off their wide range of gifts.
Kevin Pelton: A combination of factors. NBA offenses have never been more efficient than they are now, and data showing which shots are most valuable has also made it possible for stars to maintain sky-high usage rates without sacrificing efficiency. Finally, the calendar can play a role. Historically, there have been more 60-point games in January than any other month, both overall and by total games played.
2. What, if anything, can defenses do to stop these big nights?
Herring: It seems overly simplistic to say it this way, but just as I was confused that the Spurs didn't double Embiid earlier in the week, I was baffled that Atlanta waited so long to throw a second body in front of Doncic. (At least San Antonio is a young team.) Blitzing and doubling shouldn't just happen once you realize someone is on track to hit a scoring mark. Superstars have to see multiple looks throughout the game, including doubles and backcourt pressures, or else you'll almost certainly get burned repeatedly.
1:35
Devin Booker drops 62 but Suns fade late
Devin Booker puts on a clinic with 62 points in the Suns' slim loss to the Pacers.
MacMahon: Man, if I could figure this out, the Milwaukee Bucks would have given me me About 40 million dollars to solve its defensive problems. The simple answer is to send a second defender to a superstar when she starts cooking. The Hawks tried it in the second half against Doncic, limiting him to just 32 points after halftime. Not only did Atlanta barely stop Doncic, but Doncic's doubles and passes created open looks for his teammates.
Pelton: I think the Hawks could have done well to catch Luka on pick-and-rolls early in a game the Mavericks played without Kyrie Irving. On the Atlanta broadcast, color analyst Dominique Wilkins, whose career-high was 57 points, couldn't believe how little resistance Doncic was encountering in the first half. According to Second Spectrum tracking, the Hawks blitzed just two of Luka's pick-and-rolls in the first half with a pair of defenders before trying six times after halftime. By then it was too late.
3. Which over-60 scoring performance this week was most impressive?
Herring: I'll take Luka's, given that he almost had a triple-double on the road, and he did so after receiving heavy criticism earlier in the week. Like Embiid's performance on Monday, Luka's performance was impressive because, aside from a corner attempt in the fourth, you didn't get the sense that he was forcing anything to reach his numbers. He simply possessed the ball enough and shot it well enough to get there relatively naturally.
MacMahon: I'd be better off picking Doncic, for several reasons, but mainly because I think so. He scored the most points on the fewest field goal attempts (25 of 33), did so without co-star Kyrie Irving in uniform, and fell just a few assists shy of a triple-double. There's also the circumstances to consider: Dallas desperately needed a win after losing five of its previous seven games, and Doncic responded to 48 hours of criticism for his petulant performance in Wednesday's loss to the Suns with the best game of his brilliant career. .
Pelton: I'd also pick Luka, whose game score of 64.0 surpassed Embiid's 70 points as the highest by any NBA player this season and was second only to Michael Jordan's 64.6 in March 1990 among all games on base. of Stathead.com data since turnovers were first. tracked in 1977-78. While these Hawks won't be compared to the 1995-96 Bulls, this was also a more competitive opponent on the road than Embiid's home matchup against the Spurs.
4. Fact or Fiction: Will Luka's 73 points remain the season-high?
Herring: Fiction. Honestly, with so many people flirting with 70s last week, it makes me think Kobe's mark will probably drop soon, if not this season, probably in the next year or two. Guys are too efficient and defenses often operate at too much of a disadvantage to contain individual scorers.
MacMahon: Made. I'll play with the percentages and say 73 will hold, considering it's only been surpassed three times in league history. Then again, he would have said the same thing about Embiid's 70. Hey, the Mavs will face the Hawks again on April 4 in Dallas.
0:48
KD has priceless reaction to Joel Embiid's 70-point game
Suns star Kevin Durant looks at a reporter in disbelief after being told about Joel Embiid's 70-point performance for the 76ers.
Pelton: Fiction. There seems to be something contagious about these huge scoring outputs in terms of convincing other players that they can match or beat the previous total. The bar has already been set and the rest of the league now has more than two months to surpass it.
5. What does it take for someone to score 82 (or, dare we say, 101)?
Herring: A couple of these games this week ended with fairly close final scores. Certainly overtime would be one way to do it. From what we saw on Friday, a club sticking with the same defensive lineup despite how hot a player gets could be another way to almost guarantee it.
MacMahon: A superstar with a hot hand who gets a friendly whistle against one of the worst defenses of all time. There are a handful of superstars who are capable and a handful of teams with defenses that are that awful.
Pelton: A defense that decides to let the opposing superstar go one-on-one all game long is its best strategy, regardless of the possibility of being on the wrong end of a historic scoring effort. The fact that both 62-point games this week ended in losses provides proof of concept, although the cooling off of Towns, and to a lesser extent Booker, was a major factor in their teams losing leads.
Cousin! Which player will be the next to reach 70?
Herring: In fact, I could see it was Luka, again. The fact that he handles the ball as much as he does, can get hot from deep and plays alongside a star teammate, Kyrie Irving, who misses the action from time to time, makes him a top candidate.
1:52
KAT's career-high 62 points not enough as Wolves fall to Hornets
Karl-Anthony Towns breaks his own franchise record with 62 points in the Timberwolves' loss to the Hornets.
MacMahon: Is it Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's turn? The other three players averaging at least 30 points per game (Embiid, Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo) have scored at least 64 in a game this season. Gilgeous-Alexander's personal record is only 44 points, so maybe he's in for a blowout. He's not a prolific 3-point shooter, which limits his historic high-volume scoring potential, but he's as dangerous as anyone off the dribble, and he gets to the free throw line a lot, a staple of these types of nights.
Pelton: Antetokounmpo, whose 64-point game against the Indiana Pacers in December has been all but forgotten in the wake of this week.
