How rare are 50-point games in October?
Steph Curry’s miraculous shooting display last night — 51 points on just 24 shots while wearing a gorgeous throwback Warriors jersey — gave us multiple 50-point games in October for the first time since…2016 (Detroit’s Blake Griffin achieved the mark earlier this week).
Two years ago, both Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis exploded for 50 points in October. Both games were very different from what we’ve seen this year as Westbrook shot 17-off-44 from the field while scoring 51 points, dishing out 10 assists and nabbing 13 rebounds. It was the perfect Westbrook game for what would become his eventual MVP season and the first 50+ point triple-double since 1975.
Davis scored 50 on just 34 shots, not quite Curry efficiency but also grabbed 15 rebounds. In some cruel bit of reality, Davis’ Pelicans actually lost the game. This marked the first time a player had scored 50+ points in October and lost since Sam Jones’ Boston Celtics fell to the Detroit Pistons in 1965.
Which, aptly, brings us to 1965, the last time prior to 2016 that two players scored 50 points in October in the same season. For those keeping track at home, that’s 51 seasons separating multiple 50-point games in October.
Moreover, there were only five total 50-point games in October between 2016 and 1965 with Curry (2015), Rashard Lewis (2003), Adrian Dantley (1980), Rick Barry (1977) and Barry again (1966).
In 1965, Celtics’ Hall of Famer Jones joined, who else, but Wilt Chamberlain in the multiple 50-point games in October class. Wilt scored 53 (with 21 rebounds) on October 23, 1965, while Jones scored his regular season career-best 51 points on October 29.
For Chamberlain, 50-point games in October weren’t really rare, special or unique. “The Stilt” had scored 50+ points seven times prior including achieving the mark four times alone (!) in 1962 and three times in 1961. The latter, of course, being the year when Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game through the entire season.
It was fitting that Curry was wearing a Warriors throwback uniform last night (their early 1980s version specifically) as Warriors have dominated the list of 50-point outbursts in October.
Curry achieved the mark himself now twice, Barry did it in 1977 and 1965 as a member of the Golden State and San Francisco Warriors, respectively and seven of Chamberlain’s eight 50-point games in October came as a member of the Warriors franchise (four in San Francisco and three in Philadelphia). Overall, of the 19 players to score 50-points in October, 11 have been Warriors.
Can we see three 50-point games this October? It’s certainly possible.
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With a handful of days still left in October and the offensive explosion taking place across the league, the situation is ripe for another 50-point game this month. If it happens, it will be the first time since Chamberlain’s outburst in 1962 that we’ve seen more than two 50-point games in the month.
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