NBA working day 89
Luka Dončić made it even more difficult in a crazy week in which players have scored baskets like crazy in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks player shattered his personal and team records in a game for the ages. The Slovenian scored 73 points, the fourth best record in NBA history, surpassed only by Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant. His performance lifted the Mavericks to a 148-143 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on the road this Friday.
Dončić’s 73 points come in the same week that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, voted best player of the previous regular season, scored 70 points, also a team record, in Monday’s game once morest San Antonio. Spurs, where he gave rookie Victor Wembanyama a lesson, although he also had a good game. Embiid’s 70 points were this season’s record, but the mark has only lasted a few days.
The two players lead the list of top scorers in the NBA this season, with spectacular records. Embiid is averaging 36.0 points per game, while Dončić is averaging 34.6. Both have been selected for the All Star starting quintets on February 18. And both are among the candidates to be the best player of the regular season, a close competition in which Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are also running.
HISTORIC 73-POINT NIGHT FROM LUKA DONCIC ????
???? 73 PTS
???? 25/33 FGM (75.8%)
???? 15/16 FTM
???? 8 3PMHe becomes the 4th player in NBA history to score 73+ points and the first ever to score 70+ on 75% or higher from the field. pic.twitter.com/Afm9cyJung
— NBA (@NBA) January 27, 2024
Dončić’s score this Friday is the highest in the NBA since Kobe Bryant’s 81 points on January 22, 2006. The NBA record belongs to Wilt Chamberlain with the 100 points he scored in a game in 1962 playing with the Philadelphia Warriors once morest the New York Knicks. Chamberlain also scored 73 points in another game, the third-highest mark in NBA history, and scored 73 points in two more. Dončić is tied for fourth place with him and David Thompson, who added that same number in a 1978 game when he was a member of the Denver Nuggets.
Dončić had his aim sharp all night. He made 25 of 33 field goals, including 8 of 13 three-pointers, and 15 of 16 free throws. Drives to the rim, mid-range shots, baskets with an additional free throw and acrobatic three-pointers followed one another as if nothing had happened. The Slovenian broke his record of 60 points in a game, which was also the record on his team until now. Field goals scored were another personal record. In his 45 minutes played, he also managed 10 rebounds and gave 7 assists in a game to score. He became the fifth player in NBA history with at least 70 points and 10 rebounds in a game, joining Chamberlain (who did it six times), Elgin Baylor, David Robinson and Embiid, who did it on Monday.
The Slovenian player also broke the team record for most points scored in half a game, thanks to the 41 in the first half (18 in the first quarter and 23 in the second). He made 17 of 22 field goals, including 6 of 9 three-pointers, in that first half. He thus surpassed the 34 in the second half of Dirk Nowitzki’s game once morest the Utah Jazz on November 3, 2009.
Scoring streak
Curiously, those 41 points were not the highest number of the week in the NBA in half a game, since on Monday Karl-Anthony Towns, of the Minnesota Timberwolves, scored 44 in the first half once morest the Charlotte Hornets. He finished the game with 62 points, the same day Embiid scored 70. This made Monday the fourth day in NBA history in which two players scored at least 60 points. The most recent was April 9, 1978 (when David Thompson scored 73 points for Denver and George Gervin 63 for San Antonio in a scoring title duel on the final day of the season).
And this Friday… was the fifth. In addition to Dončić’s 73 points, Devin Booker added 62 points this Friday for the Phoenix Suns. That is, of the five times in NBA history that two players have scored 60 points or more on the same day, two have been this week. It looks like they made the rings bigger. NBA teams are averaging regarding 116 points per game this season, the highest average in the league since the 1969-70 season.
“There are some incredible players,” Doncic said Friday when asked regarding the recent streak of great scoring performances. “There is so much talent in the NBA. I don’t think there has ever been so much talent. I don’t know because I didn’t watch the NBA. But there is so much talent in the game that it is just crazy,” he added, in statements reported by the Associated Press.
“What is happening in the NBA?! The league is on fire with another dominant performance. This time, Luka Doncic! 73 points, wow! ????Congratulations to Luka for his incredible game of 73 points and 10 rebounds tonight,” Magic Johnson tweeted.
