Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls puts up a shot past Spencer Hawes of the Charlotte Hornets on his way to a game-high 52 points at the United Center on January 2, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Hornets 118-111. (Photo : Getty Images/Jonathan Daniel)
This 2016-2017 season of the National Basketball League is currently the year for heavy scoring performances from both the Eastern and Western Conferences. On Monday, Jimmy Butler became the eighth player this season with a 50-point performance and it looks like it would be a usual occurrence in the NBA that players would breach the half century mark.
In less than a week, the NBA has seen three 50-point games and probably the greatest triple-double of all time. On Friday, the minute Isaiah Thomas showed he was the biggest man on the court by dropping 52 points for the Boston Celtics. Then, before the year ended, James Harden towed the Houston Rockets to victory against the New York Knicks with a historic 53-point, 17-assist, 16-rebound performance before Butler scattered 52 points on Monday.
The NBA has eight different 50-point games to tie last year's record and it is quite assured that this season would break that record with more than 40 games to go for each team. To break that record, a 50-point game from either Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, DeMar DeRozan, Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, CJ McCollum, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Love, who scored 50 in the past seasons or breached the 40-point mark, should happen, Sports Illustrated reported.
Players' resorting to the three-ball and better spacing is one of the reason why there had already been eight different players with 50 points even with the first half of the season still not over. The abundance of talent, or the lack thereof, are also behind the boom of 50-point performance.
Butler, Thomas and Russell Westbrook needed to score 50 to tow their depleted teams to victory. Meanwhile, the last three NBA Most Valuable Players in Curry, Durant and James, have not scored 50 since their talented teams do not require them to, The Guardian reported.
With the pace of 50-point games occurring, it will not take much time before the eight different 50-point game record is broken. Watch the video below of Butler's 50-point game:
