NBA Finals History: 5 highest scoring games in NBA Finals history
Also read: The best NBA Finals series of All-time
Why do we all love the NBA? Is it for the exhilarating end to end basketball action? Is it because of the fervor with which teams complete day in and day out to chase that elusive championship? Or is it because of the individual stories of greatness, the ones which cause us all to palpitate, whenever recalled of?
The NBA is a multitude of varying facets. It is about eminence and glory. It is about giving that extra effort to pull off the unthinkable.
Basketball may be a team game, but in the end, it is collective individual brilliance which runs the show. And what better stage to turn up big than the grandest stage of the NBA Finals?
So today, we look at such games of individual brilliance which made their way to the pages of history books. We take a look at individuals who saved the best for the last; the ones who hit the mark when the situation demanded them to. We look at the five individual highest scoring games in the history of the NBA Finals.
Honourable Mention
Bob Pettit (St. Louis Hawks) v Boston Celtics, April 12, 1958: 50 points
Only six players have ever managed to score 50 points or more in the history of the NBA Finals and we thought it would be rather unfair to omit the first person who achieved this feat. Pettit, then playing for the St. Louis Hawks, reached this milestone in Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
Despite reeling from inconsistency during the entire season, the Hawks made their way to the finals where they would meet the Celtics, the same team that reduced them to despair in the previous year's NBA Finals.
A mid-series injury to Bill Russell gave the Hawks the much-needed edge as they hustled their way to a 3-2 series lead with the sixth game set to be played at home. It was here when Pettit's efforts helped the Hawks eke out a 110-109 win to seal the only NBA title in the history of the franchise.
Pettit scored 31 of his 50 points in the second half of the game. This included a whopping 18 points out of the final 21 made by the entire team. Pettit also made the final bucket of the Hawks - a tap-in - to thrust his side to a 3-point lead with the game clock winding down and it turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for the Celtics.
Since then, five individuals have managed to cross the 50-point threshold with the first person on this list being the most recent one to do so...