Today’s Sports Stat: January 11, 2018
Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams scored 50 points in his team’s win over the Golden State Warriors last night. Williams attempted 16 three-point shots in the contest.
It was the 181th time in league history that a player attempted 15 or more three-point shots in a game. Williams became the 73rd player to attempt 15 or more threes in a regular season game.
Steph Curry holds the NBA mark with the most games with 15 or more three-point attempts in a game with 24. Following are the nine players who attempted 15 or more three-pointers in five or more regular season games.
24-Steph Curry
9-J.R. Smith
8-Klay Thompson
7-Eric Gordon, James Harden
6-Kobe Bryant, George McCloud
5-Dennis Scott, Russell Westbrook
J.R. Smith holds the NBA record for most three-point attempts in a game with 22. He made 10 of 22 three-pointers in a game on April 6, 2014 as a member of the New York Knicks versus the Miami Heat.
Williams made eight of his 16 attempts, 50 percent. Of the 181 times when a player attempted 15 or more threes in a game, the player made 50 percent or higher of his attempts in only 64 of those games.
Five different players (Ray Allen, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson and Russell Westbrook) are tied for the most three-point attempts in a playoff game with 18.
One final note: There have been only five times when a player attempted 15 or more three-pointers and made 70 percent or higher of those shots. Four of those five times were by Steph Curry (the other time was by his teammate, Klay Thompson). Curry has the highest three-point percentage of any player with 15 or more three-point attempts in a game… he made 13 of 17 (76.5%) in a game on November 7, 2016
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NBA Stats: Scoring 40 points in an NBA playoff game
Steph Curry had 40 points in leading his Golden State Warriors to a Game One come-from-behind victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals on Sunday.
For Curry, it was his fifth career 40-point playoff game which made him the 22nd player since 1964 to have five or more career playoff games with 40 or more points. The Warriors are now 4-1 in these 40-point games by Curry, and it was the first home playoff game where Curry had 40+ points.
It should come as no surprise that Michael Jordan has the most 40-point playoff games since 1964. Jordan has 38; LeBron James is second on the list with 18.
Following are the 22 players who have had five or more 40-point playoff games since 1964.
38: Michel Jordan
18: LeBron James
16: Jerry West
13: Kobe Bryant
12: Shaquille O’Neal
11: Hakeem Olajuwon
10: Allen Iverson
9: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
8: Rick Barry
7: Kevin Durant, Bernard King, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade
6: George Gervin
5: Steph Curry, Charles Barkley, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Bob McAdoo, Russell Westbrook, Dominique Wilkins
Did you know:
- Of the 12 players who scored 40 or more points in this year’s playoffs, their teams are only 4-8 in those games.
- Curry scored his 40 points last Sunday in 39 minutes. Of the last 100 games (dating back to 2005) where a player scored 40 or more points in a playoff game, only 16 played under 40 minutes in that game.
- Four of the five 40-point playoff games in Curry’s career saw him take 14 or more three-point shots. In the other game he took nine three-point shots.
- Jerry West in 1965 had the most 40-point playoff games in one season, eight. Jordan had seven 40-point games in the 1989 playoffs for second on the list.
- Only two non-starters have scored 40 or more points in a playoff game since 1964. Nick Van Exel did it on May 10, 2003 when he scored 40 coming off the bench for the Dallas Mavs in a playoff contest versus Sacramento. Curry is the only other non-starter on this list… he did it last year in a playoff game where he didn’t start on May 9 against Portland. He tallied 40 points in that game.
Steph Curry misses out on unique NBA ‘Grand Slam’ honor
When Golden State’s Andre Iguodala was selected as the NBA Finals MVP on Tuesday night, it prevented Warriors star and teammate Steph Curry from becoming the ninth NBA player to win a unique version of the league’s Grand Slam.
Curry led the Warriors to the league’s best regular-season record and a title while being named the 2014-15 season MVP. Iguodala, however, was named the Finals MVP. Eight players previously won the league MVP, Finals MVP, and saw his team win the most games in the regular season and win the title.
Here’s a look at those players who won the league MVP and Finals MVP in the same year their team won the most regular-season games and the NBA title.
1970: Willis Reed, New York Knicks
1971: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks
1983: Moses Malone, Philadelphia 76ers
1984, 1986: Larry Bird, Boston Celtics
1987: Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers
1992, 1996: Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls
2000: Shaquille O’Neal, Los Angeles Lakers
2013: LeBron James, Miami Heat
Note: Michael Jordan almost accomplished this feat a third time, but his Bulls tied for the most regular-season wins in 1998 with the Utah Jazz; Tim Duncan in 2003 was league MVP, Finals MVP and saw his Spurs win the NBA title, but the Spurs were tied for most regular-season wins that year with Dallas.
In the 60 seasons the NBA has awarded an MVP Award for the regular season (since 1955-56), the league MVP’s team has played in the NBA Finals that year 31 times. Of those 31 times, the league MVP’s team has won the title 23 times (Curry and the Warriors were the 23rd time).
The regular-season MVP has also been the Finals MVP 15 times: Willis Reed (1970), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971), Moses Malone (1983), Larry Bird (1984), Larry Bird (1986), Magic Johnson (1987), Michael Jordan (1991), Michael Jordan (1992), Hakeem Olajuwon (1994), Michael Jordan (1996), Michael Jordan (1998), Shaquille O’Neal (2000), Tim Duncan (2003), LeBron James (2012), LeBron James (2013).
One final note: This year was only the second time in NBA history that a regular-season MVP saw his team win the NBA title but he did not win the NBA Finals MVP. The other time was in 1980 when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the league MVP and the Lakers won the championship that season, but teammate Magic Johnson was the Finals MVP.
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