Luka Doncic scored 73 points in the Dallas Mavericks' win over the Atlanta Hawks. Photo / AP
Luka Doncic scored 73 points in the Dallas Mavericks' win over the Atlanta Hawks. Photo / AP
Luka Doncic and Devin Booker went on another NBA scoring spree on Saturday, making this a week like none other in league history.
Doncic broke his own Dallas franchise record by scoring 73 points — tying the fourth-most in NBA history — and Booker scored 62 for the Phoenix Sunsin the second-highest-scoring game of his career to add to a week of offensive explosions the likes of which the league has never seen.
Saturday marked only the fifth time in NBA history — and amazingly, the second time this week — that two players scored at least 60 points, after Joel Embiid scored 70 for Philadelphia and Karl-Anthony Towns had 62 for Minnesota on Tuesday.
Before that, the most recent such occurrence of two 60-point games on the same day was on April 9, 1978, when David Thompson scored 73 and George Gervin scored 63. The NBA went nearly 46 years without another such day before Embiid and Towns pulled it off.
“I mean, you have some amazing players, man,” Doncic said on Saturday when asked about the recent run of great scoring performances. “There’s so much talent in the NBA. I don’t think there’s ever been this much talent. I don’t know because I didn’t watch NBA. But you have so much talent in the game it’s just insane.”
Doncic had a game topped by only Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant — Saturday was the fourth anniversary of the Los Angeles Lakers great’s death — on the NBA’s career scoring list. Chamberlain scored 100 on March 2 1962; Bryant scored 81 on January 18 2006; Chamberlain had 78 on December 8, 1961.
And now, Doncic has joined their echelon, his 73 tying Thompson and Chamberlain (who did it twice) for fourth-most in an NBA game.
Doncic’s previous career best was 60 points. He made 25 of 33 shots in Dallas’ 148-143 win over Atlanta, plus went 15 of 16 from the foul line and 8 of 13 from three-point range.
Luka Doncic scored 73 points in the Dallas Mavericks' win over the Atlanta Hawks. Photo / AP
“Incredible performance,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Doncic had 10 rebounds and seven assists. 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 Tuesday.
Add the assists in there, and nobody in NBA history had as many points, rebounds and assists in the same game as Doncic did on Saturday.
“What he does on the court is different than anybody else,” Kidd said.
Booker, whose career high is 70 — also in a loss, coming at Boston in 2017 — made 22 of his 37 shots from the field, 12 of 13 from the line and 6 of 12 from three-point range in the Suns’ 133-131 loss at Indiana. Booker missed a three-pointer at the final buzzer on Saturday.
He scored 29 points in the first quarter, matching the highest-scoring quarter in the NBA this season — Embiid had a 29-point third quarter against Washington in November — and tied the highest-scoring first quarter in the league since Kevin Love had 34 against Portland on November 23 2016.
“Just making shots, taking the shots I’ve been taking all season, just being confident,” Booker said.
Booker has scored at least 59 points three times in his career and somehow, the Suns are 0-3 in those games.
“He’s a spectacular player,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “I think he should have been voted to be an All-Star starter, personally. I think the whole world can see that. He’ll be in that game when the coaches vote (for the reserves). What a special performance.”
Besides Tuesday (Embiid and Towns) and the April 1978 day (Thompson and Gervin, as they dueled on the final day for that season’s scoring title), there were just two other instances of two players scoring 60 or more on the same date.
One was January 17 1962, (Jerry West scored 63 for the Lakers, Chamberlain scored 62 for the Philadelphia Warriors) and the other was December 8 1961 (Chamberlain had 78 for the Warriors and Elgin Baylor had 63 for the Lakers in a triple-overtime game against each other).
Scoring spree
There have been five instances of a player scoring at least 62 points in the NBA this season: the four this week with Embiid, Towns, Doncic and Booker, plus a 64-point night from Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo on December 13 against Indiana.
There haven’t been so many 62-point games in the same season since 1962-63, when there were six — all by Chamberlain. The only other season with more 62-point outings was 1961-62, when there were 12 (10 by Chamberlain, one by West, one by Baylor).
Leaguewide, NBA teams are averaging about 116 points per game this season — the highest rate in the league since the 1969-70 season.
