For the second time this season, a player crossed the 70-point barrier. That doesn’t even feel like it should be legal, but Damian Lillard made it a reality Sunday night. Facing the unserious Rockets, Lillard put on a rare display … that we saw from Donovan Mitchell almost two months ago.
Lillard is the eighth player to ever crack 70. Of course, Wilt Chamberlain achieved the mark six times. But Lillard’s outburst had its own distinctions:
At 32 years and 226 days old, Lillard is the oldest to score at least 70. David Robinson is now second. (Yep, the day he dropped 71 just to swipe the scoring title from Shaq.)
Lillard shot 22-of-38, the second-fewest attempts in a 70-point game. He was 14-of-14 from the free throw line, the fewest attempts among all 70-point games.
You guessed the flipside stat. His 13 made 3-pointers are tied for the second-most in a game, ever. He's the sixth player to hit a dozen 3s in a game. His five from at least 30 feet are tied for the most since the league started tracking data in 1996-97.
He's now averaging 41 in his last dozen games. Kobe Bryant and James Harden are the only others since the ABA-NBA merger to enjoy similarly hot stretches. Let’s not yawn at this. Just because scoring is up and we’ve had 148 40-point games this season, doesn’t mean this achievement should be taken for granted. The NBA has multiple 70-pointers in a season for the first time since Wilt pulled off three in 1962-63.
Regardless of trends, 70 is absurd.
|
Go back to Kings-Clippers again – and again
|
This was an inconceivable weekend of basketball. Let’s recap Friday night, when the Kings and Clippers had a showdown with 3-seed implications. The Clippers were up 145-131 with about four minutes left in regulation (yes, those are real numbers) before De’Aaron Fox and the Kings came storming back. Sacramento forced four consecutive turnovers before the game reached overtime tied at 153. 
