The NBA obtained a little bit of historical past on Monday evening when Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Cities turned the fourth pair of gamers to every rating 60 or extra factors on the identical day. Embiid’s 70-piece went about as anticipated. Although the opposing San Antonio Spurs saved it a bit nearer than Embiid would have preferred, his Philadelphia 76ers in the end escaped with the win. At that time, like 63 of the primary 83 scorers in NBA historical past to succeed in 60 factors in a recreation, Embiid was a winner on his historic evening.

After all, that implies that coming into Monday, we might seen 20 gamers hit the 60-point mark in a recreation and nonetheless handle to lose. That determine rose to 21 an hour or so later, although, as a result of Cities could not lead his Minnesota Timberwolves previous the lowly 10-31 Charlotte Hornets. Cities himself even managed to get blocked on a possible game-winner with 5 seconds to go and missed one other potential game-tying shot as time expired.

A participant shedding a recreation by which they drop 60 factors feels virtually unthinkable, however it occurs extra continuously than you’d suppose. Round one-quarter of 60-point scorers in the end fail to earn the victory. So let’s check out these gamers whose particular person greatness was solely overshadowed by their disappointing teammates.

The trendsetter

From the NBA’s inception in 1949 by means of the 1976-77 season, just one participant ever scored 60 factors in a recreation with out incomes a victory. Nonetheless, that participant did so a staggering 11 instances. You’ve got in all probability guessed by now that the participant in query was Wilt Chamberlain. Instantly, that ridiculous statistic makes a complete lot extra sense. A participant who averaged 50 factors per recreation throughout a whole season was sure to lose loads of huge particular person performances.

Within the grand scheme of issues, Chamberlain did pretty properly in his 60-point outings. He could have misplaced 10 of them, however he gained 22. That is a win price of 68.75%, not terribly removed from the roughly 79% his contemporaries posted. As you’d suspect, Chamberlain holds the highest-scoring loss in NBA historical past. On Dec. 12, 1961, Chamberlain reached 78 factors in a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers. 

Apparently, all 11 of Chamberlain’s 60-point losses got here inside a single four-year interval. The primary got here in 1961 and the final got here in 1964. The Huge Dipper performed almost one other decade, however gained his final 5 60-point video games between 1966 and 1969. Chamberlain is the one participant to lose greater than two 60-point video games. Actually, just one different participant in league historical past has scored 60 and misplaced greater than as soon as.

The G.O.A.T.

Sure, that is proper, even Michael Jordan is mortal. Effectively, a minimum of his teammates have been. Technically, Jordan has a below-.500 file in 60-point performances. Within the common season, which is what we have been monitoring to date, he went 2-2. The primary of these two losses got here in 1987 to the Atlanta Hawks, and the second got here in a 1993 defeat by the hands of the Orlando Magic. He had 60-point wins over Detroit and Cleveland to even out his regular-season file, however we’ve not even coated Jordan’s most well-known 60-point recreation.

That one got here within the playoffs. In 1986, Jordan set an NBA file that hasn’t but been damaged by scoring 63 factors in a first-round recreation in opposition to the Boston Celtics. These Celtics have been arguably the best workforce in NBA historical past, profitable 69 regular-season video games and shedding simply 13. Boston could have wanted two overtimes to get there, however they in the end beat the Bulls 135-131. Larry Chicken famously mentioned after the sport that it was “God disguised as Michael Jordan” enjoying in opposition to the Celtics that day. It is proof {that a} 60-point loss does not have to be embarrassing. Its probably the most superb issues arguably the best participant ever completed.

The duel

Solely as soon as in NBA historical past have we seen two separate gamers attain 60 factors and lose on the identical day. Sarcastically, these two defeats got here as a part of probably the most well-known scoring races the league has ever seen. Let’s flip the clocks again to 1978, when David Thompson and George Gervin are each averaging roughly 27 factors per recreation coming into the final day of the season, April 9.

Thompson performed first and wished to lock up the scoring title. He very almost did so with the fourth-highest scoring output in NBA historical past. Thompson scored 73 factors, however along with his Nuggets already locked into their No. 2 seed as a division winner, that they had little motivation to truly win their recreation and in the end fell 139-137 to the Detroit Pistons. The Spurs have been in the identical place later within the day after they suited up, as a result of as a division winner, their seed was set and the end result did not matter. 

Nonetheless, Gervin got here into the sport realizing he wanted precisely 59 factors to win the scoring title. He completed with 63, however he simply may have had extra. He scored 63 within the first half, secured his title, and went to the bench having performed solely 33 minutes. To this present day, that’s the fewest minutes ever performed in a shedding 60-point effort, and the Gervin-Thompson battle was the closest scoring race in league historical past.

The Grinch(es)

This time interval produced just one extra 60-point loser, and it additionally got here from a scoring champion. Bernard King’s legendary 1984-85 marketing campaign noticed him common 32.9 factors per recreation when no different participant even reached 29. Sadly, it is typically forgotten because it got here on a pathetic 24-58 Knicks workforce. Certain sufficient, the New Jersey Nets managed to damage King’s Christmas after they defeated the Knicks 120-114 at Madison Sq. Backyard regardless of a Herculean 60-point effort. King’s monster day continues to be the highest-scoring Christmas recreation in NBA historical past, however his Knicks teammates could not discover it inside themselves to place a victory beneath his tree.

The brand new wave

We have coated 16 of the 21 regular-season 60-point losses so far in addition to the one playoff defeat. That leaves us with 5 extra. All of them have come since 2017, which means we went 24 years with out a 60-point defeat after Jordan’s final one. Let’s cowl the final 5 in chronological order:

• On March 24, 2017, Devin Booker joined Chamberlain and Thompson as the one gamers ever to attain 70 factors in a recreation and nonetheless lose. Booker’s recreation was considerably controversial on the time, as Suns coach Earl Watson known as two timeouts down the stretch to create further appears to be like for Booker regardless of the end result of the sport being out of attain. But even to this present day, solely 9 gamers have ever reached the 70-point threshold, so it is exhausting to search out an excessive amount of fault when anybody does so.
• Kemba Walker (60 factors) did nearly every part he moderately may have accomplished to assist the Charlotte Hornets defeat the Philadelphia 76ers on Nov. 17, 2018. He scored 19 of Charlotte’s 24 fourth-quarter factors and completed with greater than half of the 119-point complete, however he light in additional time by scoring simply two factors in these final 5 minutes. The extra balanced 76ers obtained the win behind 33 Embiid factors.
• Poor Damian Lillard. He could not have two 60-point losses like Jordan, however he managed to lose each a 50-pointer and a 60-pointer in the identical calendar. The 50-point defeat got here in March of 2019, after which, eight months later in November, the Nets beat the Blazers 119-115 to present Lillard his 60-point loss. He reached double-digit factors in all 4 quarters and scored 34 within the second half, however his teammates shot 21-of-64 from the sector whereas the Nets obtained 67 mixed factors from Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie.
• Bradley Beal’s marvelous efficiency on the street in Philadelphia was among the best video games of his profession. On Jan. 6, 2021, Beal placed on a present, however offense and protection do not at all times align ultimately. Beal’s 60 helped the Wizards rating 136, however the 76ers outdid them with 141 behind 38 from 60-point slayer Joel Embiid.

That leads us to tonight. Cities scored 44 factors within the first half, probably the most ever within the play-by-play period (beginning in 1996-97). He slowed down with 18 within the second, a powerful half by regular requirements, however he wanted 18 discipline objective makes an attempt to get there. The Timberwolves power fed him the ball after they led by double-digits, and it slowly chipped away at their lead. After main by as many as 18 factors, the Timberwolves fell by three because of a livid Charlotte rally.

It is a disappointment to make sure, however Cities made loads of historical past on Monday. As The Ringer’s Zach Kram famous, there have been solely 5 60-point video games from facilities since Wilt Chamberlain’s final one in 1969. Cities is the one middle with two of them. He luckily gained his first, which got here in March of 2022. That ought to make this one a bit simpler to swallow. If nothing else, his defeat put him in excellent firm.