The 2023-24 season has already shown signs of becoming a historic year for the NBA for the sheer number of records broken and points scored by individual players in the league. One such feat was recently achieved by Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic, who created history with an iconic 73-point outburst against the Atlanta Hawks last night. This is just days after the reigning MVP from the Philadelphia 76ers, Joel Embiid, stunned the league by putting up 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs earlier this week.
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Interestingly, only eight players had 70+ point games before the season started. And now, there are ten. Two of the other eight players with 70+ point games are Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell, who achieved the historic feat at the beginning of last year.
Now that Luka Doncic has enlisted one of the greatest scores in the league’s history, let’s see where the Slovenian ranks among other NBA legends who have created records for the most points scored in the league. Here is a list of players recording the highest-scoring games in NBA history.
#1. Wilt Chamberlain (100 points)
Wilt Chamberlain still retains his #1 position as the player with the most points scored in the history of the league. Wilt’s 100-point record against the New York Knicks in 1962 is still untouched as no player has ever come close to breaking the feat.
It took him 63 field goal attempts, the most in NBA history, to achieve this feat within 48 minutes of play. Alongside scoring 100 points, Chamberlain grabbed 25 rebounds and made 2 assists to lead Philadelphia to a 169-147 victory against the Knicks. Chamberlain also set five other league records, including that of most free-throws made, which was a notable achievement considering Chamberlain was regarded as a poor free-throw shooter.
#2. Kobe Bryant (81 points)
Perhaps the only player to have remotely come close to breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record was Kobe Bryant against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. The Mamba’s outburst remains the second-highest-scoring performance in NBA history, trailing just 19 points from Wilt Chamberlain’s historic 100-point feat.
The Lakers were trailing by 14 points at half-time and 18 early in the third quarter before Bryant completely outscored the Raptors. The Mamba posted a ridiculous 55 points in the second half, including 23 in the final nine minutes of the game.
#3. Wilt Chamberlain (78 points)
Wilt Chamberlain is considered the greatest NBA scorer because he also retains the third spot for the most points scored in a game. Before his 100-point explosive outburst in 1962, Chamberlain had previously set the record for the most number of points scored in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in 1961.
The dominant big man posted 78 points from 62 field goal attempts in 63 minutes, which is one of the highest ever. Furthermore, Chamberlain also grabbed a record 43 rebounds in that game, which very well makes this stat otherworldly.
#4. Luka Doncic and David Thompson (73 points)
Luka Doncic, with his feat last night, now shares the fourth spot for the most points scored in an NBA game with David Thompson. Thompson achieved his feat in 1978, scoring 73 points against the Detroit Pistons. Interestingly, Thompson’s feat at that time was tied with one of Wilt Chamberlain’s games as well, wherein the veteran center had scored 73 points against the Chicago Packers in 1962.
Among these three players, Doncic is the only one to have reached the 73-point mark in the least number of shots, with just 33. In the case of both Chamberlain and Thompson, they had field goal attempts of more than 35 shots, thus making Doncic’s achievement particularly incredible.
