Indiana Pacers's Indiana Pacers friend's fan blogs

A few days ago I posted a blog listing the best scorers in the NBA today that have yet to have a 50-point scoring game.

While researching that post, I had an even more interesting idea for a post.

It’s a list of guys who, unbelievably, had a 50-point game in their career.

Since I was using www.basketball-reference.com to research the list, we’re only going back to the 1986-87 season. It’s far enough back in time to make some of the guys on the list obscure, but not far enough back to where you won’t remember them.

In no order, here are some of the more random players to score 50 points in an NBA game over the past 24 seasons.

Vernon Maxwell

Before Ron Artest and the “Malice at the Palace”, there was Vernon Maxwell running into the stands and punching a fan. While “Mad Max” will be remembered most for that, he also finds himself in elite company as one of only 60 players to score 50 or more points in a game since the start of the 1986-87 season.

Continue reading "That Guy Scored 50??"

I just got done watching the surprisingly entertaining game in Denver between the Nuggets and Knicks, a game in which Carmelo Anthony scored 50 points and the Nuggets won 128-125.

When the announcers (I watched the MSG feed, and it’s always disappointing when Mike Breen isn’t there) were recapping the game, they casually mentioned that it was a new career-high of points in a game for Melo.

 

If my powers of deduction are correct, that means that this is the first time in his career that Melo has scored 50 points in a game.

 

That can’t be right, right? I mean, this is a guy that has a reputation around the league for being one of the best pure scorers in the game today. Surely he’s dropped for 50 before.

 

I needed to consult www.basketball-reference.com to be sure.

Continue reading "Best Scorers Without a 50-Point Game"

Officially, attendance was listed for the Los Angeles Clippers at Memphis Grizzlies game last night at 10,012.

The only way that number was over 10,000 is if you took every person in the arena, counted every person whose number was stored in their cell phone, and multiplied it by two.

At one point in the first quarter, the game was going from right to left on the TV. I paused it during the possession and counted eleven people in the stands on the far side of the floor. The game shifted back down to the right side of the floor. I counted roughly the same amount of people.

They were the best seats in the house, and I had a tough time finding 30 people who were sitting in them.

What a joke of a franchise the Grizzlies have become.

They signed Allen Iverson this offseason, clearly in an effort to sell tickets, and it actually had the reverse effect. They botched the Iverson situation less than five games into the season, and the fans (if this is even possible) are actually less interested in Grizzlies basketball than ever before.

Continue reading "The End of the Grizzlies? Let's Hope So."

Last night, it was one small step forward and one giant leap back for the Orlando Magic.

Rashard Lewis made his season debut after being suspended for the first ten games of the season, but in the fourth quarter of the same game, Jameer Nelson injured his left knee. Reports out of Orlando today are that Nelson needs surgery to repair cartilage in that knee, and will miss 4-6 seeks.

The injury to Nelson is a big blow to the Orlando Magic. This is a team that many, including myself, thought coming into the season were a favorite to win the Eastern Conference. They were very successful last season, and achieved most of their success without Nelson, who was injured shortly after being named to his first all-star game.

In the offseason, they made the biggest splash in the Eastern Conference by adding Vince Carter.

Continue reading "Jameer Nelson Out 4-6 Weeks"

Every Monday, with the assistance of the good people over at www.basketball-reference.com, I like to take a look deep into the statistics of teams and players from around the league in a little post I like to call “Fun with Box Scores”.

Some of the gems I came across this week:

-Quinten Richardson has gone 9 games, 275 minutes played, without taking a single free throw this season.

-Even more remarkably, Jason Kidd has taken just 2 free throws in 347 minutes this season.

 

-73% of Daniel Gibson’s shots this season have been from beyond the three point line, by far the highest percentage of any player in the league with at least 50 shots taken.

 

-Since 1986, the record for most 40+ point games before December 1st is 14. Brandon Jennings’ 55 point outburst on Saturday was the 14th time that someone has scored at least 40 this season, tying the record, and we’ve still got 15 days left in the month.

Continue reading "Fun With Box Scores"

The NBA league pass is awesome, but nothing beats a good TNT double-header.

Tonight, we get a great TNT double-header.

The night starts off with Cleveland at Miami. I’ve written this before, but LeBron vs. Wade is the best head-to-head matchup to watch in the NBA right now. These guys always bring out the best in each other.

In 19 career games against each other, LeBron is averaging 28.6 points per game, 5.6 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.2 steals. Wade is averaging 27.2 points per game, 5.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 2.4 steals.

In seven of the last nine meetings, at least one of the two has dropped for at least 30. Twice in that span has each player scored 40 in the same game.

With Miami having only one loss so far this season, and Cleveland coming off a big win against the Magic, I would expect nothing less than a shootout tonight. I expect both superstars put their respective teams of their back and play out what, hopefully, is a very entertaining game to watch.

Continue reading "Great TNT Double-Header Tonight"

The New Orleans Hornets became the first team to make a coaching change this season, firing head coach Byron Scott today.

Scott being fired doesn’t come as much of a shock to anyone who has watched the Hornets play this season. They look brutal. They are just 3-6 this season. Every time I turn on a Hornets game they seem to be getting blown out.

Add that to the fact that Chris Paul looks like he’s about two weeks away from punching a teammate in the face on the way back to the bench and I would say that it was time to make a coaching change.

In reality, Scott should have been fired in the offseason. The Hornets lost game four of their first round playoff series against the Nuggets by 58 points. That’s not a typo. 58 points. And New Orleans was at home.

Continue reading "Hornets Fire Byron Scott"

Have you looked at the league leaders yet this season?

There are some familiar faces atop some of the big categories. Kobe leads the league in scoring. Nash leads the league in assists. Rondo leads the league in steals.

 

You almost expect to see those guys near the top of those categories.

 

But have you taken a look at the league leaders in rebounds? It’s not exactly a who’s who of NBA big men over the past few years.

 

Here’s the top ten:

 

1. Gerald Wallace 13.8

2. Marc Gasol 11.9

T3. Chris Bosh 11.6

T3. Carlos Boozer 11.6

5. Dwight Howard 11.1

6. Joakim Noah 11.0

T7. Brendan Haywood 10.7

T7. Al Horford 10.7

T7. Zach Randolph 10.7

10. Emeka Okafor 10.5

 

Continue reading "New Era of NBA Bigs?"

I wrote a short blog last week about Allen Iverson being unhappy with his role in Memphis, and I predicted that by March 1st the Grizzlies would send him home.

I mean, it was obvious that it was a marriage that was doomed from the start.

But not even I could see this coming. Just three games into his Grizzlies career, Iverson has taken an indefinite leave of absence from the team, and sources are reporting it’s doubtful that he’ll play again for Memphis.

To me, it looks like his career is done. Iverson had a hard enough time finding a team this offseason because of all the baggage that comes along with signing Allen Iverson, but taking a leave of absence less than two weeks into the season just reaffirms that he is too much of a cancer to take on anymore.

Continue reading "Who is Allen Iverson?"

Last week in “Fun With Box Scores” I took a look at about ten different things that jumped out from the previous week’s box scores.

 

It was the initial plan to roll out ten more fun little facts that I discovered while rummaging through the box scores this week, but I came across one box score that was so unique that I don’t feel like any other stat line from the week is worthy of being in the same post as this one.

 

Therefore, this week’s “Fun With Box Scores” is just one box score.

 

It comes from Wednesday night’s Lakers-Rockets game.

 

The stat line looks like this:

 

D. Fisher 35 minutes, 0-5 from the field, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists.

 

You read that correctly. In 35 minutes of play, Derek Fisher was unable to accumulate a single point, rebound, or assist in the Lakers overtime win over the Rockets.

Continue reading "Fun With Box Scores"