Nylon Calculus: Most surprising NBA scoring performances of the decade

9. Marreese Speights, 32 points vs. Philadelphia 76ers

Fun Facts:

If you go to Google Search and type “Marreese Speights,” the first autocomplete result is “Marreese Speights mole.” Anyway, this was a fun game from Mo Buckets.

Speights did not need to destroy the 76ers as masterfully as he did in this game. If he had instead chucked each of his 15 shots into the stands, the Warriors still would have won the game by 11 (they won 123-80). Of course, Speights would not have dared to do such a thing, not when he was going against his ex-coach and sworn enemy Doug Collins.

Collins and Speights did not get along together in Philadelphia. Speights felt he was receiving unfair treatment and playing time, and thought that Collins gave up on players too quickly. He wasn’t quiet about his beef with his former coach and actually tweeted about Collins fairly often from 2011 to 2015. In case anyone doubted what was going through his mind while he dropped bucket after bucket on the Sixers, Speights sent out this tweet the next day:

Favorite Shot:

Watch the 76ers’ bench. Evan Turner puts a towel over his head after Speights sinks it. Speights and Turner were friends and teammates when they played together in Philadelphia. Turner even started the #freespeezy hashtag on Twitter when Speights wasn’t getting playing time. Here, Turner probably wishes his movement had been less successful.

Shot Chart: