No player has ever scored 100 points in a game.
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The Atlanta Hawks will play the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. The Lakers' 33 game winning streak in the 1971-72 season is regarded as one of the most unbreakable records in NBA history, and will be celebrated on the 50th anniversary. The Lakers beat the Hawks 134-90 on January 7, 1972 to run their streak to 33 games, but they fell in Milwaukee two nights later.
There have only been five 20-game winning streaks in the 75-year history of the NBA. Consider the last two if you want to frame what it takes to put something together.
The Warriors finished 73-9, the best regular-season team ever. The Miami Heat won 27 games in a row in the 2012-13 season, but they had only one Hall of Fame player in D- Wade, and three other Hall of Fame players in Ray Allen, Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen.
The 1971-72 Lakers, led by Hall of Famers Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, posted a record that has remained relatively safe despite the fact that they had retired nine games into the season.
The NBA will celebrate its 100th season in 25 years, so here is a look at some of the individual records that have stood and likely will stand the test of time.
The season is over.
The entire 1961-62 season is statistical concrete, never to be duplicated. He averaged 50.4 points per game, the highest ever. Michael Jordan is the only player to average more than 37. No one is close to the average of 39.5 shots per game that Chamberlain averaged. No one has averaged more than 30. Jordan averaged 27 and Allen Iverson averaged 27 once.
His average of 48.5 minutes per game is sure to stand the test of time. He only missed eight minutes of the game after he was ejected in the fourth quarter. He played seven overtime games and reached an average of more than 48 minutes. He averaged 1.5 a game in foul trouble.
Wallace had 41 technical fouls. The Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals is in infamy in Portland. Wallace's relationship with officials deteriorated to the point where he racked up a record 41 technicals and 18 ejections. The NBA put in new rules in 2006 that called for suspensions once a player reaches 16 for a season, and it probably iced Wallace's record for good. He's third all time in technical fouls with 317, behind only Karl Malone who had 332 and Charles Barkley who had 329.
There were 88 games by Walt Bellamy. The New York Knicks had a player named Bellamy who played 35 games. He played 53 games for the Pistons because of an unbalanced scheduling quirk, and finished the season with 88 points. Josh Smith played 83 games for the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets in the last year. Tom Henderson played for the Bullets and Hawks in the 70's.
Career.
There were 6,731 offensive boards by Moses Malone. His ABA numbers are 7,382. That's 2,500 more than Artis Gilmore and Robert Parish, and 2,100 more than the NBA numbers. He had two of the highest offensive rebound games in history. The current leader in offensive rebound is Dwight Howard, who is still behind.
John Stockton has 15,806 assists. From 1987 to 1996 the league had nine consecutive seasons in which Stockton led in assists. He's 4,000 ahead of the second and third place men, and 5,000 ahead of the third. Paul is 36 years old and has a league-leading 9.9 APG. He had to keep that up until he was 42 years old. The four highest assist seasons in Utah Jazz history were all by the legend. He had at least 20 assists in 31 games. The all-time leader in career steals is Stockton with 3,265, which is 600 more than Kidd.
On Friday, January 7.
The Nets are at the Bucks.
Hawks at Lakers.
On Wednesday, January 12.
The Mavs are playing the Knicks.
The Nets are at the Bulls.
All times Eastern.
A.C. Green has played 1,192 games. The run lasted for 16 years with four different teams. Randy Smith played 905 games in a row from 1972 to 1982. Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles played in over 400 games in a row. Thompson played for Cleveland for six years.
There have been over a thousand consecutive regular-season games of double-digit scoring by King James. James had a chance to end the streak last season when he hit a 3-pointer to get to 10 points, but he left the game with an ankle injury. He left a game with an abdominal injury. Jordan had the previous record of 866 consecutive games. James Harden had a streak that was close to being the only one that was not over by the end of last season. James has scored less than 10 points in two of the last three playoff games, the last being in the last game of the year.
Hakeem Olajuwon had 3,830 blocks. It's far-fetched, but Mark Eaton's record of 5.56 blocks per game in a season is enormous. He's more than 500 ahead of second-place Dikembe Mutombo, who is closer to ninth place than first on the list. A player would need to play every game for 15 seasons and average 3.1 blocks a game to match the feat of Olajuwon. There are only three active players who have averaged 3 blocks in a season, Myles Turner, Serge Ibaka and Hassan Whiteside.
There is a game.
Skiles had 30 assists. The record has been on the books for more than 30 years. He was stuck on 29 assists for six minutes in the fourth quarter before breaking the record held by Kevin Porter from 1978. Skiles, who averaged 8.4 assists per game that season and later had a 20-assist game, scored 22 points that night. Rajon Rondo had a 25-assist game with New Orleans in the savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay Over the past 10 seasons, only two players have more than 22 assists in a game: Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo.
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The 100 points were scored by the man. The 60th anniversary of this feat, accomplished March 2, 1962, is coming up, and there's an excellent chance the 100th anniversary will come without it being touched. In a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers, he had a 78-point game, and two 70 point games the following year. The key was at the line. He was the best free throw shooter in that magical season, and it was his best night of free throw shooting. Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in 2006 and took 17 fewer shots than he had in the previous year. Booker is the only player to reach 70 points in a game since Bryant and he is still 30 points shy of the record.
The man had 55 rebound. In a game on Nov. 24, 1960, he said it was one of the most exhausting of his career. The Boston Celtics defeated Bill Russell and his team. Russell's previous record of 51 rebound was broken. The 12 highest-rebound games in history have been played by Chamberlain and Russell. Only two other players have had 40. The most recent 30-rebound game was from Enes Freedom last season, and it was the only one in the past two decades. There have been fewer than 50 instances of a team having at least 56 rebound in a regulation game this season. Rudy Gobert had 21 points in the Jazz's win over the Hornets in December, matching the season high he set in a November win over the Kings.
