The NBA had a couple of wild nights towards the end of January. The league saw two 60+ performances on January 22 and another two on January 26. However, some of the 60+ point performances were overshadowed by performances that had better outcomes.
First, Joel Embiid became the 9th player to score 70 points in an NBA game on January 22. He broke Wilt Chamberlain’s 76ers record and was all over the news for his performance.
Chamberlain’s best performance with the 76ers was 68 points on December 16, 1967. However, Embiid just earned 70 and added the best performance in 76ers history. Chamberlain’s 100-point game came with the Philadelphia Warriors. In a 133-123 win, the 76ers were able to celebrate the performance and the win.
On the other hand, Karl-Anthony Towns added 60 points for the Timberwolves that same night. But the Timberwolves didn’t win.
Just a handful of nights later, Luka Doncic added a league-high 73 points in a win over the Hawks. His performance pushed Devin Booker’s 62-point performance to the side as Booker and the Suns lost to the Pacers.
Most Points in a Game this season:
73 — Luka Doncic
70 — Joel Embiid
64 — Giannis Antetokounmpo
62 — Karl Anthony-Towns
62 — Devin Booker
60 — Stephen Curry (Last Night)SIX 60-Point Games this season! pic.twitter.com/cXMlVn7v20
— Hoop Muse (@HoopMuse) February 4, 2024
Record performances are fun. But if the team doesn’t win, the caring meter starts to come down.
Let’s dive into these performances and how they can influence your NBA betting.
Embiid’s 70-Point Game
Embiid went 24-for-41 from the field against the Spurs. He nailed 1-of-2 from three and added 21 free throws on 23 attempts. He also hauled in a career-high 18 rebounds and tallied five assists.
At the time, Embiid was considered the favorite to win the MVP. He took on Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs and said he had added motivation in the game going up against one of the league’s rising stars. Wembanyama added 33 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes. Therefore, Embiid didn’t play the best defense. But nobody really cares about that.
Embiid had 59 points through three quarters but didn’t come into the fourth quarter until there was 6:38 left in the game.
The funniest thing also happened before the game. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich joked in his early presser that the Spurs would hammer Embiid’s butt. That clearly didn’t happen.
“WE’RE GONNA HAMMER HIS ASS!”
-Gregg Popovich on Wemby’s first matchup with Joel Embiid pic.twitter.com/2E1FHMcS3O
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 22, 2024
Karl-Anthony Towns’ Historic Night
Karl-Anthony Towns was feeling it early for the Minnesota Timberwolves on the same night Embiid dropped 70 points. Towns added 44 points in the first half and was eying a high point total early in the game.
But in the fourth quarter, Towns only shot 2-for-10 and missed some crucial buckets that would’ve helped the Timberwolves escape the Hornets.
Towns admitted that after the loss, the game didn’t feel very historic. Meanwhile, Timberwolves head coach talked to the press after the game and exclaimed that Minnesota played absolutely disgustingly. He wasn’t happy with the defense and thought Towns and the guys played immature basketball, chasing numbers instead of chasing a win.
Towns didn’t like the moral victory of scoring 62 points. But he said this after the fact. He likely didn’t reflect until after the game and was seriously chasing records after a hot first half.
His teammates didn’t seem to be unhappy with Towns’ performance, as some of them were trying to help him boost his stats. But overall, it’s unlikely any player in Minnesota will put together this kind of performance again. It was so overshadowed by Embiid that some of my friends didn’t even know it happened!
Doncic Scored 73 on January 26th!
Four nights later, Luka Doncic exploded for 73 points against the Hawks. The Dallas guard powered the Mavericks past the Hawks, 148-143, in a thrilling win.
He shot 25-of-33 from the field and added eight three-pointers on 13 attempts. Doncic also missed just one free throw on 16 attempts and had a true shooting percentage of 91.2%.
He had the most efficient game in NBA history for a 70-point game. What made this 73-point game more special was that he also added seven assists, ten rebounds and one steal in 45 minutes to help secure a five-point win.
Doncic will turn 25 years old by the end of February, so it’s likely we’ll see more of these types of performances in his career.
Did The Suns Waste Devin Booker’s 62-Point Performance?
On the same day as Doncic’s 73-point explosion, Devin Booker added a 62-point performance against the Pacers.
While this wasn’t disgusting basketball from the Suns, like Minnesota, fans were unhappy with Kevin Durant and believed he and the rest of the team wasted Booker’s massive performance.
This was the second time in Booker’s career that he scored 60+ points. He knew he had it going in the first quarter after Booker added 29 points on 10-for-14 from the field. With seven minutes remaining, the Suns were up nine points. However, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton was unstoppable in the fourth quarter, while Booker had nobody else to lean on.
Booker scored the final eight points for the Suns. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant scored 20 points on 9-for-16. He just missed a potential go-ahead three with about 30 seconds on the clock. That’s why he got most of the blame. Booker finished with 60 points on 21-for-33 from the field. He also shot 6-for-9 from deep and nailed 12 of 13 foul shots.
Some fans believed that Booker didn’t get some calls late in the game and should’ve been at the foul line more. Others thought the veterans on the team didn’t step up when Booker needed them to. Booker didn’t force this 60+ point game like Towns did. He was spectacular, but because the Suns lost, his performance was overshadowed by Doncic’s game on January 26.
Winning matters at the end of the day.
