NBA: Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 54 points, a record this season

2023-11-10 11:33:30

Rightly focused on the performances of Victor Wembanyama, we may not have noticed that the NBA season got off to a great start. The Serbian Nikola Jokic is still impressive, Denver remains a more than solid competitor to retain its championship title, Boston is strong, Rudy Gobert has become “Gobzilla” again. All of this promises to be an exciting season.

And then, there are the first records of the season that fall. Until November 9, the record for points scored in a single game was held by Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine. 51 points scored on the second day against Detroit in a remake of the poster from the last NBA match in Paris last January. The Bulls still lost (118-102). This record fell during the night of Thursday to Friday. No doubt upset at having been excluded the day before for two technical fouls, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, star player of the Milwaukee Bucks, beat him with 54 units on his personal counter. He too could not avoid a defeat (126-124) on the Indiana floor.

He sinned at the end of the match

Double MVP (2019 and 2020), champion in 2021, Antetokounmpo was close to his record of 55 points, achieved last season against Washington. At 19 out of 25 shooting in 36 minutes, the Greek (who also compiled 12 rebounds and 3 assists) was in high demand from his teammates in the absence of leader Damian Lillard (calf), who arrived in the offseason, with whom he usually shares responsibilities. Essential, however, he sinned at the end of the match, notably losing two balls in the last seconds of the game (8 ball losses in total). Leader Tyrese Haliburton took Indiana (29 points, 10 assists) to a sixth victory this season (3 defeats), the third in a row.

Let us remember, however, that these first marks are far from the most recent records in the NBA. Last spring, Donovan Mitchell, who will come to Paris with Cleveland in January 2024, scored 71 points like Damian Lillard (Portland) a few weeks earlier. Today, the latter therefore plays with Antetokounmpo for the Bucks. And we’re not talking about the absolute records: the 100 points scored by former Harlem Globe Trotter Wilt Chamberlain 61 years ago or Kobe Bryant’s 81 points in 2002. To date, 35 players have exceeded the 60 mark points scored. Since most have done it again (Chamberlain has done it 32 times), this has been done 85 times in NBA history. But not yet this season.