With 71 points in a single game Monday, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell became just the seventh player in NBA history to score 70 points. Here are the six others who make up this extraordinary group.
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Elgin Baylor
Credit where credit is due, Elgin Baylor became the first player to break the 70-point mark on December 15, 1960. The legendary Los Angeles Lakers player went on to smash his own league record of 64 points, set a month earlier. When he became a U.S. Army Reserve the following season, he still maintained an incredible 38.3 point average. However, a knee injury marred the rest of his career.
Wilt Chamberlain
The only player on this list to make at least two appearances, Chamberlain has reached the 70-point plateau six times. He first achieved it on December 8, 1961 with a performance of 78 points. The Philadelphia Warriors great continued his dream season with 73 points on January 13, 1962 and set an all-time record of 100 points on March 2 of that year. Chamberlain had two more in December before ending his incredible streak on March 10, 1963 with his final tally of 70 points.
David Thompson
Sixteen years after Chamberlain’s exploits, on April 9, 1978, David Thompson also pulled a rabbit out of a hat by amassing 73 points in a losing game against the Detroit Pistons. It was the Denver Nuggets’ last game of the season and that night Thompson was narrowly stripped of the scorers’ title by George Gervin, who scored 63 points on the same day.
David Robinson
Once again, in the last game of a campaign, this time on April 24, 1994, a player with more than 70 points topped himself. Top scorer David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs broke the franchise record set by a certain George Gervin.
Kobe Bryant
It took 22 years for the inimitable Kobe Bryant to invite himself to this exquisite club. The Lakers member gave the Toronto Raptors a nightmare by amassing 81 points in a 122-104 win on January 22, 2006. “Black Mamba” scored 28 of his team’s 31 points in the fourth quarter and led them to victory.
Devin Booker
Just before Donovan Mitchell on March 24, 2017, Devin Booker had also plateaued with exactly 70 points in a 130-120 loss, the sophomore was only 20 at the time, making him the youngest to have 60 points in a achieved game. Booker put balm on a season of misery for the Phoenix Suns, which ended in the bottom of Western Conference ratings that year.