Wednesday was a crazy day for the NBA — and a wonderful one for big fans of high-scoring games. Never before in the history of the NBA had there been one like Wednesday, which saw the highest-scoring day ever in which at least 10 teams played, per ESPN Stats & Info.
NBA teams averaged 119.1 PPG across 10 games tonight. There have been 1,569 days in NBA history where at least 10 games were played. Wednesday was the highest-scoring day of any of them
Only three teams who played Wednesday manufactured fewer than 100 points. The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 99-88, while the Cleveland Cavaliers’ defense silenced Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in a 105-90 win.
Those who bet mostly on the Over of the totals of Wednesday’s games are laughing their way to the bank. The Detroit Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets combined for a total of 275 points, while the Washington Wizards and the Denver Nuggets scored 269 points together.
With a bunch of contests playing out like an All-Star game, several players finished with inflated scoring totals. Nikola Jokic led all scorers for the day with 43 points on 17-for-20 shooting from the field. He was the only one, though, to score more than 40 points. Fred VanVleet dropped 39 points on 13-for-25 shooting but his explosive offensive performance was wasted in a 124-123 home loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry had 38 points and he could have sniffed or even scored more than 50 points if only he was able to finish the game against the Indiana Pacers. Then there’s Damian Lillard, who went off with 37 points to power the Portland Trail Blazers to a 128-112 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
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