Players with most scoring outbursts in playoff history

[tmacattack33]

Here are the players with most scoring outbursts in playoff history (actually, since 1984 since that is as far back as basketballreference goes...if anyone knows a site for pre-1984 stats, let me know).


40+ point playoff games

[COLOR="Red"]Michael Jordan[/COLOR] 38
[COLOR="Purple"]Kobe Bryant[/COLOR] 13
Shaquille O'Neal 12
[COLOR="Sienna"]LeBron James[/COLOR] 11
Hakeem Olajuwon 11
[COLOR="Blue"]Allen[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]Iverson[/COLOR] 10
Dirk Nowitzki 7
Dwyane Wade 7
Charles Barkley 5
Larry Bird 5
Dominique Wilkins 5
Five players tied with 4
Six players tied with 3
Twelve players tied with 2
...and 30 players with 1



45+ point playoff games

[COLOR="Red"]Michael Jordan[/COLOR] 23
[COLOR="Blue"]Allen[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]Iverson[/COLOR] 7
[COLOR="Sienna"]LeBron James[/COLOR] 6
[COLOR="Purple"]Kobe Bryant[/COLOR] 5
Dirk Nowitzki 3
H. Olajuwon 3
Ray Allen 2
Charles Barkley 2
Shaquille O'Neal 2
Dominique Wilkins 2
...and 11 players with 1



50 + point playoff games

[COLOR="Red"]Michael Jordan[/COLOR] 8
[COLOR="Blue"]Allen[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]Iverson[/COLOR] 3
...and 8 players with 1



55 + point playoff games

[COLOR="Red"]Michael Jordan[/COLOR] 5
[COLOR="Blue"]Allen[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]Iverson[/COLOR] 1
Barkley 1



60 + point playoff games

[COLOR="Red"]Michael Jordan[/COLOR] 1 (of course we all know about this game, his 63 point game vs Boston in 1986)







MJ's dominance over his competition here is amazing.

Also somewhat surprising is Lebron being probably third or fourth best here amongst everyone. With two or three more 40 plus games he could easily be said to be the second best here.

[TheMarkMadsen]

I smell an agenda, along with a pinch of butthurt from the the "lebron has no 50 pt playoff game" thread.

It's ok guy, Lebrons a great player, you don't need to take criticism about Lebron personally.

[Quickening]

Dam Lebron just entered his prime too...

[tmacattack33]

I also wanted to point out that in 9 out of Iverson's 10 games here, he had a TS% of better than 55.0. And in 6 of them, it was better than 60.0. Which is pretty good.

55 is probably the mark you want to reach here to have an efficient game.

And that would be even if you put up 10 points. So putting up 40 points on that kind of efficiency is definitely good.

[swi7ch]

Jordan did it against tough physical defense too (Pistons Bad Boys or 90s Knicks etc.) or against rules that are no longer allowed in the NBA (hand checking, anyone?). So imagine how many more pts he'd score in today's weaker, smaller, softer, and less physical NBA.

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLv2F33snCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-qGWkiKvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WpkXlrJxtw

[Quickening]

Jordan did it against tough physical defense too (Pistons Bad Boys or 90s Knicks etc.) or against rules that are no longer allowed in the NBA (hand checking, anyone?). So imagine how many more pts he'd score in today's weaker, smaller, softer, and less physical NBA.

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLv2F33snCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-qGWkiKvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WpkXlrJxtw

Teams must have scored a lot lessPPG In that tough ass era of incredible defense...

[DatAsh]

Teams must have scored a lot lessPPG In that tough ass era of incredible defense...

Team ppg is a terrible measure for assessing how difficult it is for one player to score against said team. The Piston's entire defensive gameplan was to double/triple Jordan to stop him at all costs. There have been better defenses that have come and gone since then(08 Celtics, 03 Spurs, 04 Pistons, 93 Knicks) but none of them were as difficult for a single superstar scorer ala Jordan, Iverson, Lebron, Dwyane, or Kobe to score against.

[kurple]

iverson is so underrated now

[DatAsh]

iverson is so underrated now

I don't know about that. I see people trying to say he's better than Kobe Bryant prime vs prime.

[Quickening]

Team ppg is a terrible measure for assessing how difficult it is for one player to score against said team. The Piston's entire defensive gameplan was to double/triple Jordan to stop him at all costs. There have been better defenses that have come and gone since then(08 Celtics, 03 Spurs, 04 Pistons, 93 Knicks) but none of them were as difficult for a single superstar scorer ala Jordan, Iverson, Lebron, Dwyane, or Kobe to score against.

All superstars get doubled teamed... Jordan PPG Or efficiency must have dropped massively against those bad boy pistons, right? Oh and ppg is a far better indication of how hard it was to score in a certain era rather than subjective views about how good one teams defense was....

[DatAsh]

All superstars get doubled teamed... Jordan PPG Or efficiency must have dropped massively against those bad boy pistons, right? Oh and ppg is a far better indication of how hard it was to score in a certain era rather than subjective views about how good one teams defense was....

I'm not saying that Jordan was the only one that got double teamed, but Lebron or Kobe have never been double/triple teamed as often as Jordan was against those Piston's teams. For the record, I do think that some of the team's Lebron routinely faces in the Eastern conference playoffs are better defensive teams than the bad boy Pistons, but they still don't double/triple Lebron as hard and or frequently as the Pistons did Jordan.

As for your second point, PPG is one of the worst logical measures for assessing how good a team is defensively. If you want a good measure of defensive team strength check out fplii's work(look at the ZScore, lower is better).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...2UU1sSlE#gid=0

[PJR]

Dwyane Wade has one 45+ game. Game 4 vs Boston Celtics, 2010 first round. 46 points, his career high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZAj9ffagA

[tmacattack33]

Dwyane Wade has one 45+ game. Game 4 vs Boston Celtics, 2010 first round. 46 points, his career high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZAj9ffagA

Yeah, i just listed those at the top of the list. So for the 40 + categories, there were a few with 4, 3, 2, and 1 that i left out. And for the 45+ category, there were many players with 1.

I guess i can add a ittle "multiple players (11) with 1" note there.

[mattvNJ]

i miss iverson , it hurt seeing him struggle jumping teams and what not. Wish he had another chance. He is disrespected so much on this forum, some of it deserved most of it not.

[FreezingTsmoove]

Really now? We just went 10 whole replies without one poster mentioning that Elgin Baylor had a 61 pt 22 rebound game in the finals. OP how could you forget that? Your forgiven