Aug 16 2008
NBA’s Top 10 Highest Scores In A Single Game
On March 2nd of 1962, Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain scored an amazing 100 points in a single game. At the time there was very little excitement about this and it barely made the news. It is such ashame there was no video footage for this game. This is such an impressive accomplishment, that I doubt this record will or even could ever be broken. The closest player ever to rival that feat was Kobe Bryant in 2006, when he hurled in 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. He made seven 3-pointers and 18 free throws. The list below contains the top 10 all time highs in a single game.
1 - 100 - Wilt Chamberlain
2 - 81 - Kobe Bryant
3 - 71 - David Robinson
4 - 69 - Michael Jordan
5 - 65 - Kobe Bryant
6 - 64 - Michael Jordan
7 - 62 - Tracy McGrady
8 - 62 - Kobe Bryant
9 - 61 - Karl Malone
10 - 61 - Shaquille O’Neal
An amazing achievement as you say, and something that is never likely to be repeated. Nice list you’ve put together there and it’s quite impressive that Kobe Bryant is both second and fifth!
You failed to mention Pete Maravich scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on Feb. 25, 1977. He should be number 5 on your list.
John,
You are right Pistol Pete scored 68, but he wouldn’t even be on the list if I included the multiple games that Wilt “The Stilt” had including 100, 78, 73 (Twice), 72 and 70.
My guess is that you generated your list from the basketball-reference website. It only has game-by-game player scoring totals dating back to the mid-’80s. So your list is missing a lot of high scoring games. Someone mentioned Pistol’s 68, but there was also a 71 point game by Elgin Baylor, a 73 by David Thompson on the last day of the ‘78 season, etc. I know Rick Barry had a 64 point night sometime around 1974.
hmmn … ur source r wrong dude… check this site
http://www.basketballhistorian.com/top_ten_highest_point_totals.cfm