[Editors Note: Welcome back to SportsJudge.com's take on Pardon The Interruption. On a bi-weekly basis, SportsJudge.com authors, Chris Stanley and Adam Primm, will take on a PTI-style debate about a topic of their choosing. Chris and Adam are friends, roommates, and Ohio State law students. This week, the 100-point game.]Chris Stanley:Adam and I have been discussing whether Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point performance in an NBA game is within reach. Adam thinks the record is absolutely, 100% untouchable. After Kobe Bryant’s 81 point game last season, I think it just might be breakable.
100 points is a ridiculous number, but don’t let it blind you. Lets look at a possible scenario that just might result in a new NBA single game scoring record. Kobe’s 81 point performance was not perfect. In fact, he shot 28-46 from the field, and 18-20 from the free throw line. Kobe made 7 out of 13 three’s and took just over half of his team’s shots during the game (46-88).
There are several things that could have gone differently during this game that would have resulted in a 100 point performance. First, if Kobe had made every shot he took, he would have scored 125 points (18 additional points from three’s, 24 additional points from two-point field goals and 2 additional points from free throws). Obviously, Kobe will never put on a performance this perfect in his career. But just look at the numbers for a second. Based on the shots Kobe took during his 81 point game, he could have scored a possible 125 points. He would need to get 80% of those points in order to score 100. That would be quite a feat, but is it impossible? Maybe. Maybe not.
Also consider the fact that Kobe only took 52% of the
Lakers' shots. What if the
Lakers' game plan involved Kobe putting the ball up 75% of the time? That would mean 20 more shots, which results in 66 total shots for Kobe. Even if all of those extra shots were two point field goals, Kobe would have a total of 165 possible points. If he were to score just 60% of those points, he would have a 100 point game.
Kobe’s 81 point performance was nowhere near perfect. Also, the
Lakers’ game plan likely did not involve Kobe shooting the ball any more than it usually does. I think Kobe could find a way to score 20 more points than he did during his 81 point game at some point in his career, allowing him to break Wilt’s 100 point record.
Adam Primm:There is no way Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in a game will ever be broken. This is one of those records that will never be broken, like Joe
Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak. I feel this way for a variety of reasons. First of all, Wilt was absolutely dominant; no one could stop him. As awesome as the 100 point game was, let’s not forget that Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game in the 1961-1962 season (he scored 100 on March2, 1962). Wilt scoring 100 in a game that season is like Kobe scoring 60 in a game this season; both players would be doubling their averages. Also consider that Wilt set records for field goals made (36), attempted (63), free throws made (28), most points in a quarter (31), and most points in a half (59). This was easily the most dominant offensive performance ever in the history of the NBA and the circumstances had to fall just right for this type of game to happen.
One of those circumstances was the more up-tempo style of game in the early 1960s. The 1961-1962 season which saw Wilt average 50.4 points and 26 rebounds per game and Oscar Robertson average 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game was much different from the game today. In 1961-1962, teams averaged 125.5 possessions per game and 108 shots per game. In contrast, the 2008-2009 season has teams averaging 91.2 possessions per game and 80.2 shots per game. The significantly slower pace greatly hinders anyone from making a run at Wilt’s record of 100 points in a game. When Kobe scored 81 against the Raptors in January of 2006, the
Lakers took 88 shots and the Raptors took only 76. Compare that to the Warriors and
Knicks in Wilt’s 100 point game when the Warriors took 115 and the
Knicks took 118. The Warriors also attempted 52 free throws and the
Knicks took 41. By comparison, the
Lakers attempted 33 and the Raptors 27. Wilt took 32 by himself in 1962.
Part of the reason for the high number of free throws was the mess that the Warriors and
Knicks made of the fourth quarter. Wilt had 69 points at the start of the quarter and the Warriors approach was to feed Wilt every time down court. As Wilt was approaching 100 points, the
Knicks began fouling the other 4 Warriors simply to prevent Wilt from scoring more. The Warriors responded by fouling the
Knicks right away so they could get the ball back sooner. The final score of the game was 169-147, partially due to the quick pace of the game back then, but also due to the abnormal fourth quarter in which the score was 44-41, Warriors (the score in the second half was 90-79 Warriors). In today’s defensive game, final scores don’t total 169 points let alone the second half.
While I agree with Chris that Kobe has the best chance of coming close to scoring 100 points, there are many differences between his game and Wilt’s. Wilt played in the post and Kobe is a wing. That alone is a strike against Kobe. While Kobe can hit a three, Wilt’s shots were all within 10 feet of the hoop. Also, at 7’1” and 275-300 pounds, Wilt was the most physically imposing player in the NBA. To make matter worse for the
Knicks, their starting center, Phil Jordan, was hurt and
didn’t play. Second-year man
Darrall Imhoff had the task of guarding Wilt who had 3 inches and 55-80 pounds on him. The
Knicks' next biggest player was Cleveland Buckner at 6’9” and 210 pounds. The other two players who spent a good portion of the night trying to stop Chamberlain were both 6’6” and weighed 205 and 225 pounds, respectively. They had no chance at stopping Wilt as they were totally
overmatched physically.
Imhoff later stated that Wilt “stuffed us through the hoop with the ball. It
didn’t even help we quintuple-teamed him.” The
Knicks tried everything short of putting a 6
th man on the court or unleashing Jeff Van
Gundy to wrap himself around Wilt’s ankle while he posted up. Kobe is good, but he
isn’t that good. If Kobe is triple-teamed, let alone quintuple-teamed, he
isn’t shooting over 57% from the field like Wilt did. This is true for a few reasons.
First, the NBA today is so much more flexible in terms of defense. If Kobe starts making a serious run at 100 points, the opposition will shift to a zone defense that neutralizes the amount and kinds of touches Kobe is going to get. Second, since no team wants to give up 100 points, the opposition will do exactly what the
Knicks did and start fouling other players simply so Kobe can’t score more points. While I think this is a bush league move, it will probably happen, and I don’t see Phil Jackson telling his team to foul back so Kobe can get more shots. That type of back and forth hack-fest could lead to a fight in today’s game and I think the coaches would rather avoid that. Third, Kobe’s quickness and talent simply can’t equal Wilt’s imposing physical stature. A bad night for Wilt that year would have been 30 points and 15 boards. That is absurd. It was arguably the most dominant game of the most dominant season ever. To say that Kobe could feasibly match or beat that record greatly underestimates what Wilt did that night. Teams are more suited to adjust their defenses to stop a wing player that gets hot than they are to stop a dominant big man. If a wing gets hot, you can play him physical, double-team him, switch to zone, or foul the other players like the
Knicks tried in 1962. When Wilt got hot, the
Knicks were quintuple-teaming him, fouling him (he had the best free throw shooting day of his career), and fouling his teammates. None of the tactics worked, Wilt was too big and strong around the hoop for the
Knicks to be able to stop him. At his size, he was able to fight through these tactics. If Kobe gets quadruple or quintuple-teamed, he is not big enough to fight through and is more likely to pass out of it anyway.
Finally, the numbers don’t support the argument that Kobe can score 100 points. With teams averaging 35 fewer possessions in today’s game, there
aren’t nearly as many offensive opportunities for Kobe as there was for Wilt. And even with the Warriors feeding Wilt so he could score 100 points, he still only took 54.8% (63-115) of the Warriors shots that night. By comparison, Kobe took 52.3% of the
Lakers' shots when he scored 81. It
isn’t an issue of getting Kobe more shots, it is an issue of speeding up the pace of the game so there are more shots in general. Finally, Kobe’s 81 point performance is the closest anyone has come to Wilt’s 100. If you look at this closer, you will see that the closest is still only 81% of the total. Despite scoring over 80, Kobe still needed another full quarter at his current pace to match Wilt.
The last reason that Wilt’s record will not be broken is because the
Knicks didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with Wilt having 41 points at halftime. Wilt stated that he routinely had halves of 30 or 35 points and had scored over 60 points in a game on 32 previous occasions, so the
Knicks did not see a need to adjust to him at halftime. However, if anyone scored 41 points in a half in today’s game, you can guarantee the entire conversation at halftime is how to stop that one player. When Wilt scored 100, it was the perfect storm of a physically dominant player against a team shorthanded by injury. Aiding the abnormalities was the up tempo pace of the game, the ridiculousness of the 4
th quarter, and the “sneaky” aspect of Chamberlain “quietly” scoring 41 points in the first half. This presents too many factors that would have to fall perfectly for Kobe or anyone else to make a run at the record. Even if all of these things happened, Kobe would still have to shoot close to 60% and fight through the different defenses that the opposition would throw at him to make a run at the record. It is too much to overcome.
Loyal SportsJudge.com readers probably know that we rarely link to other articles, and almost never link to stories written by college papers. However, this one is too good to pass up.
Posts
