Most games with one NBA team
On Wednesday night, Kobe Bryant set an NBA record by playing his 20th season with the same team, the Los Angeles Lakers. He broke the record he shared with John Stockton (19 years with the Utah Jazz).
Stockton, however, holds the NBA record for most games played for one team in a career. Stockton played 1,504 games in his 19-year NBA career, all with the Jazz. Second on the list is Reggie Miller who played 18 seasons and 1,389 games in the NBA, all with the Indiana Pacers.
Here’s a look at the NBA players who played the most games in their NBA career, all with one team/franchise.
John Stockton: 1,504 games with the Utah Jazz
Reggie Miller: 1,389 games with the Indiana Pacers
Tim Duncan: 1,331 games with the San Antonio Spurs (active)
Kobe Bryant: 1,280 games with the Los Angeles Lakers (active)
John Havlicek: 1,270 games with the Boston Celtics
Dirk Nowitzki: 1,265 games with the Dallas Mavericks (active)
Hal Greer: 1,122 games with the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers
Joe Dumars: 1,018 games with the Detroit Pistons
Tony Parker: 1,008 games with the San Antonio Spurs (active)
Calvin Murphy: 1,002 with the San Diego/Houston Rockets
In addition to the four players above who are still active in the league, there are four more active players who have played 600 or more games in their careers, all with the same team/franchise. They are: Manu Ginobili (865 games with San Antonio), Nick Collison (816 games with the Seattle Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder), Dwyane Wade (781 games with the Miami Heat) and Udonis Haslem (777 games with the Miami Heat).
Of the 30 NBA teams, 20 have had one or more player(s) that has played 800 or more games with the team (regardless of whether they played all those games with that team). Ten teams/franchises do not have any players that have played 800 career games.
Here’s a look at the teams with the most players that have played 800 or more games for the team (teams are listed by their current franchise city).
10: Boston
9: L.A. Lakers
5: Philadelphia
4: Dallas, San Antonio
3: Detroit, Indiana, Oklahoma City, Utah
2: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Portland, Sacramento
1: Denver, Golden State, Minnesota, N.Y Knicks, Phoenix, Washington
0: Brooklyn, Charlotte, Cleveland, L.A. Clippers, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Orlando, Toronto
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NBA scoring: Most points in a game… by age
Kyrie Irving
Back on January 28, Cleveland Cavalier point guard Kyrie Irving scored 55 points in a win over Portland. The 55 points in a game are the most scored by an NBA player in a game this season.
The 22-year-old Irving, who turns 23 later this month, just missed a mark by two points in that game. According to research done on basketball-reference.com, Irving’s 55 points fell two points short of the most points scored by a 22-year-old, 57, by Rick Barry in an October, 1966 NBA game.
Just two months earlier, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant scored 44 points in a loss to Golden State. Kobe’s 44 points as a 36-year-old fell one point short of Shaquille O’Neal’s 45 points he scored at the age of 36 in a February, 2009 contest against Toronto.
Let’s take a look at the most points scored in an NBA game by players ages 18 through 44. Note: Since the research for this stat was done on basketball-reference.com, these stats only go from the 1963-64 season until today. Obviously a 25-year-old Wilt Chamberlain would top the list of most points scored by an NBA player age 25 when he tallied 100 on March 2, 1962.
Here’s a look at the most points scored in an NBA game by each age group from 1963-64 to today.
Age, Player, Points Scored
18: LeBron James, 37
19: Cliff Robinson, 45
20: LeBron James, 56
21: Rick Barry, 57
22: Rick Barry, 57
23: David Thompson, 73
24: Tracy McGrady, 62
25: George Gervin, 63
26: Karl Malone, 61
27: Kobe Bryant, 81
28: David Robinson, 71
29: Pete Maravich, 68
30: Kobe Bryant, 61
31: Wilt Chamberlain, 68
32: Wilt Chamberlain, 66
33: Rick Barry, 55
34: Karl Malone, 56
35: Alex English, 51
36: Shaquille O’Neal, 45
37: Karl Malone, 41
38: Michael Jordan, 45
39: Michael Jordan, 45
40: Michael Jordan, 43
41: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 25
42: Robert Parrish, 16
43: Robert Parrish, 12
44: Kevin Willis, 6
Note: The totals above reflect only regular season games. If we include playoff games, there would be a handful of changes on the leaderboard: Karl Malone scored 50 points in a playoff contest at age 36; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 26 points at age 41 in a playoff game; and Abdul-Jabbar scored 24 points at age 42 in another playoff game.
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NBA Finals: Thunder’s Durant, Westbrook join legendary duos with Game 1 scoring outburst
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published daily that focuses on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook not only outscored the whole Miami Heat team by themselves in the second half of Tuesday’s Game 1 win, but the high-scoring duo from Oklahoma City also joined an elite group of teammates that have scored 27 or more points in an NBA Finals game.
Durant had 36 points and Westbrook had 27 making them the first teammates in eight years to both score 27 or more points in an NBA Finals game. The last duo to accomplish this feat were the Lakers Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal on June 8, 2004.
Miami’s LeBron James had 30 points in last night’s game, making it the first NBA Finals game since the June 8, 2004 game mentioned above that three players scored 27 or more points. (Detroit’s Chauncey Billups had 27 points in the Pistons loss to the Lakers in that game.) Three players scored 27+ in an NBA Finals game eight times since 1986.
Going back to 1986, there have been 17 sets of teammates that scored 27 or more points in a NBA Finals game. The last set of teammates to score 27+ in a finals game and their team lose was in 1998 when the Bulls Toni Kukoc (30) and Michael Jordan (28) lost to Utah.
Following are the teammates that scored 27 or more points in an NBA Finals game since 1986.
Date, Team, teammates with 27+ points
June 12, 2012: Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant (36), Russell Westbrook (27)
June 8, 2004: L.A. Lakers, Kobe Bryant (33), Shaquille O’Neal (29)
June 9, 2002: L.A. Lakers, Kobe Bryant (36), Shaquille O’Neal (35)
June 10, 2001: L.A. Lakers, Kobe Bryant (32), Shaquille O’Neal (30)
June 8, 2001: L.A. Lakers, Kobe Bryant (31), Shaquille O’Neal (28)
June 14, 2000: L.A. Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal 36, Kobe Bryant (28)
June 12, 1998: Chicago, Toni Kukoc (30), Michael Jordan (28)
June 10, 1998: Chicago, Michael Jordan (34), Scottie Pippen (28)
June 1, 1997: Chicago, Michael Jordan (31), Scottie Pippen (27)
June 9, 1995: Orlando, Shaquille O’Neal (33), Penny Hardaway (32)
June 9, 1995: Houston, Hakeem Olajuwon (34), Sam Cassell (31)
June 9, 1993: Chicago, Michael Jordan (31), Scottie Pippen (27)
June 12, 1991: Chicago, Scottie Pippen (32), Michael Jordan (30)
June 12, 1990: Portland, Clyde Drexler (34), Jerome Kersey (33)
June 7, 1987: L.A. Lakers, Magic Johnson (32), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (27)
June 2, 1987: L.A. Lakers, James Worthy (33), Magic Johnson (29)
June 8, 1986: Boston, Larry Bird (29), Kevin McHale (29)
Did you know? The last time two sets of teammates scored 27+ in an NBA Finals game was June 9, 1995 when Orlando’s O’Neal (33) and Hardaway (32) lost to the Rockets Olajuwon (34) and Cassell (31).
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NBA Finals: Will LeBron James score 32 points tonight?
LeBron James… (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published daily that focuses on stats that go beyond the numbers.
If you believe in numbers and stats and karma (and if you’re anywhere near a roulette wheel) you may want to put money on Miami’s LeBron James scoring 32 points tonight in Game 1 of their NBA Finals series against Oklahoma City. In Game 1 of the three previous series in this year’s playoffs, James has scored 32 points in each game. Oh, did I mention that the Heat won each Game 1 in the three previous series?
James averaged 33.6 points in the Eastern Conference Finals series against the Celtics, scoring 30 or more in six of the seven games. For this year’s playoffs, James has scored 30+ in 11 of the 16 games. This would lead a lot of people to guess that we’ll see a 30-point game from James in tonight’s contest.
But here’s an interesting stat to ponder: James has played in 10 NBA Finals games (six with Cleveland in 2007 and four with Miami last year). He has scored 25 or more points in only two of those 10 games… and he did not score 25 or more points in any of the six games in last year’s finals. Here’s another quick stat to consider: In the two opening games of the finals that James has played in, he scored 14 in Game 1 in 2007 and 24 in Game 1 in 2011.
What will his Game 1 performance look like this year?
Keeping with the Game 1 in the NBA Finals theme, here’s a look at the players in the last 30 years (since 1982) that have scored the most points in the first game of the NBA Finals.
Points in Game 1 of NBA Finals, Player, Team (Year)
48 Allen Iverson, Philadelphia (2001)
44 Shaquille O’Neal, L.A. Lakers (2001)
43 Shaquille O’Neal, L.A. Lakers (2000)
40 Kobe Bryant, L.A Lakers (2009)
39 Michael Jordan, Chicago (1992)
36 Shaquille O’Neal, L.A. Lakers (2002)
36 Michael Jordan, Chicago (1991)
34 Shaquille O’ Neal, L.A. Lakers (2004)
34 Adrian Dantley, Detroit (1988)
33 Tim Duncan, San Antonio (1999)
33 Michael Jordan, Chicago (1998)
33 Isiah Thomas, Detroit (1990)
33 James Worthy, L.A. Lakers (1987)
33 Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston (1986)
* Since 1982, there have been 45 players who have scored 25 or more points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals; teams were 27-18 (.600 winning percentage) in those games. Twenty-three players scored 30 or more points in the opening game; teams were 16-7 (.696 winning percentage) in those games. In the four games where players scored 40 or more points, teams were 3-1.
* The last time teammates each scored 25 or more points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals was 2004 when Shaq scored 34 and Kobe added 25 . The Lakers lost that game. In the last 30 years, at least one player has scored 25 or more points in Game 1 of the finals in 28 of those 30 series (2008 and 1989 were the exception).
Who will score 25 or more points in tonight’s game?
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Kobe Bryant vs. Kevin Durant: Six stats you might not know
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Kobe Bryant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Game 1 of the Oklahoma City Thunder–Los Angeles Lakers playoff series is in the books and the Thunder made a pretty loud statement with their 119-90 win.
While there are many subplots to this series, the one that has garnered significant attention is the match-up between Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. ESPN Stats & Information noted that this is the fifth time that the No. 1 and No. 2 regular season scorers are facing off in the playoffs. This Kobe-Durant battle may not have the sexiness of a Magic-Bird matchup, but it’s still worth watching.
Here’s a look at some stats you might not know about when Kobe and Durant have faced off against each other since Durant came into the league in 2007 (includes last night’s game).
1. The Lakers and Thunder (they were the Sonics in Durant’s first year in the league)… and Bryant and Durant… have played against each other 23 times since the start of the 2007 season. The Lakers have won 16 of the 23 games. The Thunder, however, have won four of the last five. They have faced off in the playoffs seven times with the Lakers holding a 4-3 edge. The home team has won all seven games in the playoffs between these two teams.
2. In the 23 games that Bryant and Durant have faced each other, Kobe has scored more points than Durant in 11 games, Durant has scored more points than Kobe in 11 games, and they have had the same number of points in one game. In the last 14 games, however, going back to March 26, 2010, Durant has outscored Kobe in 10 games of those 14 games.
3. Both Bryant and Durant average just under 21 shots per game when their teams play against each other. Bryant averages 20.9 shots per game, Durant 20.5 shots per game.
4. Each player’s points per game (ppg) in home games, away games, wins and losses in the 23 times they’ve faced each other:
* Bryant: Home, 27.1 ppg; Away, 24.6 ppg; Wins, 26.0 ppg; Losses, 25.3 ppg.
* Durant: Home, 25.0 ppg; Away, 25.3 ppg; Wins, 26.7 ppg; Losses, 24.4 ppg.
5. Bryant averages 27.0 ppg in regular season games against the Thunder. His playoff average versus the Thunder is 23.0. Durant averages 25.2 ppg in regular season games against the Lakers; his playoff average is 25.0.
6. Kobe’s high game against the Thunder in the Bryant-Durant era was 48 on January 14, 2008. His low game was 11 on March 26, 2010. Durant’s high game against the Lakers was 35 on April 22, 2012. His low was a 15-point performance on February 24, 2008.
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