Listing the 2 players with the most 60-point games in a single NBA season
Whether it is in terms of skills or simply efficiency, we have some of the greatest scorers ever seen in the NBA right now. From Kevin Durant to LeBron James, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Damian Lillard, the current NBA has lots of offensive weapons who can dominate games with ease.
Throughout the league's history, Michael Jordan is definitely one of the scorers who intimidated rivals with his relentless work in offense. His unique attributes gave him an edge every single night.
Wilt Chamberlain dominated scoring-wise like nobody else has done it in NBA history. He scored 100 points in a single game and, perhaps more impressively, averaged 50.4 points per game during the entire 1961-62 NBA season.
However, another player has also had multiple 60-point games in an NBA season. Without further ado, let's have a look:
Note: One player accomplished the feat in more than one season.
#3 Damian Lillard | 2019-20 NBA season - 3
Damian Lillard joined elite company when he recorded three 60-point efforts throughout the pandemic-hit 2019-20 season. It helped the Portland Trail Blazers seal a postseason spot late in the season in the Orlando bubble.
Although the eighth-seeded Blazers lost in the first round against the eventual champions LA Lakers, Lillard put the team on his back and had a brilliant season at the offensive end.
He averaged a career-high 30 points per game in 66 appearances that season for the Portland Trail Blazers.
His three 60-point games were a 61-point effort in a win against the Golden State Warriors (with a career-high 11 threes made), another 61-point outing in a win against the Dallas Mavericks, and a 60-point effort in a loss against the Brooklyn Nets.
Lillard's career-high in the regular season is 61 points in a single game, and he has done it twice. In terms of 60-point games in his career, he has done it thrice. He is one of only six players in league history with multiple 60-point games in his career.
#2 Wilt Chamberlain | 1962-63 NBA season - 9
Wilt Chamberlain was a scoring machine. With some amazing footage from his best days being released, we can understand better how impressive he was on a basketball court and the tools he had to find the net with the most unique consistency in league history.
Chamberlain led the league in scoring in his first seven seasons, and he put up some numbers that will perhaps never be broken. In the 1962-63 season, he averaged 44.8 points per game (80 appearances) and also posted a league-high 24.3 rebounds per game for the San Francisco Warriors.
He also averaged a league-high 47.6 minutes per game, and recorded nine 60-point outings in the campaign. Chamberlain's highest-scoring game that season was a 73-point effort against the New York Knicks on November 16th, 1962.
The interesting fact is that the 73-point outing is only tied for the third-highest scoring game of Chamberlain's career.
#1 Wilt Chamberlain | 1961-62 NBA season - 15
Chamberlain's average of points per game in the 1962-63 season (44.8) is the second-highest in league history and the second-highest of his career. The reason is his unique and borderline ridiculous 1961-62 season.
In that campaign, his third in the league, Chamberlain averaged an all-time record 50.4 points per game (80 appearances). He also led the league in minutes per game (48.5), and rebounds per game (25.7).
That season, with the Philadelphia Warriors, Chamberlain had 15 games with at least 60 points and 45 with at least 50 points. While he had 45 games with at least 50 points in the 1961-62 campaign, Michael Jordan had 31 in his entire career (the second-most in league history).
The highest-scoring game of the 1961-62 season for Wilt Chamberlain came on March 2nd, 1962, against the New York Knicks, with 100 in a single game (all-time record). All these records are likely to remain forever, as they just seem unbeatable in today's era.