Sports Reference Blog
Best NBA Scoring Duos in One Game (Mailbag)
Posted by Neil on March 5, 2013
We get asked this question a lot, and unfortunately it's not currently possible to find the answer via the Play Index, so I decided to put up a leaderboard once and for all. The most recent version of the question comes from BBR user Reggie:
I’ve seen references on here to games where two teammates scored 40 or more in the same game. But which teammates combined to score the most points in any game? [...]
One game that I remember very well as a Mavericks fan, which is often overlooked, was the overtime game they won at Chicago on November 13, 1994. That was the game where Jamal Mashburn hit for 50 and Jim Jackson went for 38, the two scoring 88 of the 124 points that night in the four point Mavs victory.
Since we have complete box scores (1985-86), here are the 200 most potent scoring duos in a single NBA game:
Now, some of you may be saying (and I agree) that the above list is misleading, since you're not really looking for situations like Kobe's 81-point game, where one guy scored a ton of points and the second guy just rode his coattails onto the list. So in order to make sure both scorers have high totals, here are games sorted by the Geometric Mean of the two top scorers' totals:
[...] I enjoyed digging through these lists for pairs of Knicks and [...]
I know your list only goes back to 1985, but in the mid sixties, if memory serves, there was a game where Jerry west and Elgin Baylor each scored 43 points, and the los angeles times' headline the next day was west and Baylor "86" the (losing team). Sorry, but I don't remember who they beat.
http://www.quora.com/NBA/What-pair-of-NBA-teammates-have-the-highest-combined-single-game-score-where-each-player-scored-at-least-30-points
Denver Nuggets vs. Detroit Pistons, December 13, 1983 (3 OT) (Kiki Vandeweghe 51, Alex English 47) (highest scoring game in NBA history) - 98 points
San Antonio Spurs vs. Milwaukee Bucks, March 6, 1982 (3 OT) (George Gervin 50, Mike Mitchell 45) (Brian Winters also scored 42 points for Milwaukee in the same game) - 95 points
Detroit Pistons at Denver Nuggets, December 13, 1983 (3 OT) (Isiah Thomas 47, John Long 41) (highest scoring game in NBA history) - 88 points
Los Angeles Lakers at San Francisco Warriors, February 11, 1970 (Elgin Baylor 43, Jerry West 43) - 86 points
New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets, April 10, 1977 (Pete Maravich 45, Nate Williams 41) (David Thompson also scored 40 points for Denver in the same game) - 86 points
New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets, April 10, 1977 (Pete Maravich 45, Nate Williams 41) (David Thompson also scored 40 points for Denver in the same game) - 86 points
Utah Jazz vs. Detroit Pistons, March 19, 1984 (Adrian Dantley 43, John Drew 42) - 85 points
Phoenix Suns at Boston Celtics, January 5, 1978 (Paul Westphal 43, Walter Davis 40) - 83 points
Baltimore Bullets vs. Los Angeles Lakers, November 14, 1964 (Gus Johnson 41, Walt Bellamy 40) - 81 points
Playoffs
Los Angeles Lakers at Detroit Pistons, March 29, 1962 (Elgin Baylor 45, Jerry West 41) - 86 points
Houston Rockets at Dallas Mavericks, April 30, 1988 (Eric "Sleepy" Floyd 42, Hakeem Olajuwon 41) - 83 points
Forgetting Chamberlin and Attles, 117, Arizin, 116, Meschery, 116, all in the same game?
While it's great to have the stats you do have, they're so misleading when many records that took place prior have been left out so as to make it almost meaningless.
The Sporting News use to put out annual NBA guides that had the single game stats for most points, assists and rebounds by game by year as well as most shots, fga, fgs, fta and ftm. It would be nice if someone added those missing years if at all possible.
Surprised to see so few sightings of Run TMC on this list. Also expected more Bron & Wade.
Jordan & Pippen and Shaq & Kobe are well represented.
Interesting that Bird is on the list with DJ, Ainge, McHale, and Parrish, all the other starters from their last contending teams.