Anatomy of EuroLeague scoring records: How are they broken? / News - Basketnews.com

The way EuroLeague scoring records are reached has changed throughout the years, and the new method of doing it is here to stay.

Credit: Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images, Rokas Lukoševičius/BNS Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images, Rokas Lukoševičius/BNS

After standing for almost 20 years, the EuroLeague single-game scoring record was broken twice in the last five years, most recently by Nigel Hayes-Davis, who scored 50 against ALBA Berlin. The question naturally arises - is the way these records were reached any different now compared to the early 2000s?

Nigel Hayes-Davis

Team:Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulPosition:PFAge:29Height:203 cmWeight:105 kgBirth place:Wisconsin, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

The legendary Alphonso Ford scored 41 on 12-for-23 shooting on January 31st, 2001, to set a new EuroLeague scoring record at the time. While four other players - Carlton Myers (2001), Kaspars Kambala (2002), Bobby Brown (2012), and Tyrese Rice (2019) - have reached the mark since, it took 18 years until Shane Larkin broke it.

Ford did it in a tight game against then-TAU Ceramica Vitoria-Gasteiz in what ultimately turned out to be a two-point loss. Almost a third of his points came from the free-throw line (14/15), as Ford drew 13 fouls alongside his 9 rebounds.

Ford's Peristeri and TAU Ceramica met in the Round of 16 as the second-seeded and third-seeded teams in their respective groups. Myers' then-PAF Bologna played against Real Madrid when he scored 41 points, and it was the all-deciding matchup in the quarterfinals between two top teams. Myers' performance pushed the Italian team to the semifinal round.

When Kambala scored 41, his then-Efes Pilsen played against FC Barcelona, as the two teams only had a combined one loss at the time. Brown's performance happened during the second game week of the Top 16 stage of the competition. Rice's 41-point game came against Olympiacos Piraeus, who were placed in the middle of the standings at the time.

Only Kaspars Kambala managed to score 41 points without a single three-pointer, making his achievement even more impressive. He shot his free throws at only 50% during the game (5/10), leaving additional reserve for reaching the record. All other performances had one thing in common - three-pointers, asFord had 3 triples, Myers had 5, Brown had 4, and Rice had 8.

How's it in the NBA?

Nigel Hayes-Davis

MIN:31.45PTS:14.31 (57.37%)REB:4.59As:1.62ST:0.93BL:0.21TO:1.24GM:29ProfileEuroLeague2023/2024

All these performances had another thing in common - they were in tight games against top-level competition when the biggest names had to step up to earn their teams a victory. However, times have changed.

The NBA's all-time single-game scoring record has been standing for more than six decades when Wilt Chamberlain scored the famous 100 against the New York Knicks in 1962. Starting with Wilt, all top NBA scores have been reached against bottom of the pack teams.

The 1962 Knicks were way below .500 with just 29 wins in the season. They had an abysmal away record of 2-23. Meanwhile, Wilt's Philadelphia 76ers famously tried to reach that 100, giving their superstar big man the ball in every possession. Chamberlain shot a whopping 63 field goals in that game, making 36. He also attempted 32 free throws.

Kobe Bryant's 81-point game in 2006 against the Toronto Raptors was no different. The Raptors finished that season with just 27 wins and 55 losses, sharing the 5th-worst record in the league. Both games - Wilt and Kobe's - were blowouts, where a much stronger team easily defeated a much weaker squad, and their top player decided to push for the numbers.

As time progressed, this way of establishing new scoring records came to the EuroLeague as well.

Shane Larkin's case

In his second season with Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Shane Larkin shattered the EuroLeague record in 2019 in a game against FC Bayern Munich, scoring 49 points while making a EuroLeague-record 10 three-pointers. He attempted just seven two-pointers and ten free throws.

Larkin started the game hot, scoring 14 points in the first quarter. His scoring prowess continued in the second quarter, and he finished the first half with 25 points, with Efes leading the game by 17.

As Efes continued to maintain the lead, Larkin continued to score. He'd made 7 threes in 8 tries after three quarters and had 36 points in his account. After scoring a long two-pointer, Larkin registered his new career-high at the start of the fourth quarter. Then, Larkin got cold.

Trying to reach the scoring record, Larkin missed a couple of shots and ultimately committed an offensive foul that got him substituted out of the game. It surely helped, as not even a minute after being later substituted in, Larkin made a triple in a chaotic possession, tying the then-record.

After feeling the rhythm again, Larkin then utilized a mismatch for his 43rd point and later hit two triples to close out the match with 49 points, beating out the previous record by an impressive 8 points.

Compared to the games in the past, everyone on the team and in the arena knew about the record. It was something that both Larkin and Efes wanted to reach when they saw how successfully their star guard started the game and how relatively easy of a matchup it was.

Bayern finished the 2019-20 season as one of the worst teams in the competition, registering just 8 wins in 28 games. The German team was tied for last place when the tournament got canceled due to COVID-19. Efes, meanwhile, finished the year first in the standings with 24 wins and just 4 losses.

Nigel Hayes-Davis' performance

Similarly to Larkin, Nigel Hayes-Davis used a favorable matchup to its fullest.

This year's ALBA Berlin, who now have only five wins in 32 rounds, are one of the worst in the EuroLeague since the new semi-closed league's format was introduced in 2016. Only Khimki Moscow Region (4 wins, 2020-21) managed to earn fewer victories in a 34-game season than ALBA, and Khimki went bankrupt a season later.

ALBA played the game without their best player, Johannes Thiemann, who leads the team in minutes, scoring, rebounds, and PIR. Multiple players on the roster are 25 years old or younger, while the team's second-best player is Sterling Brown, who's been very inconsistent this season.

Hayes-Davis started the game hot, scoring 18 points in the first quarter on almost-perfect shooting, while Fenerbahce, who are in the top five in the EuroLeague at the moment, enjoyed a big lead early on.

The game's scenario helped, as ALBA managed to come back to the game in the second quarter, reducing their deficit to nine points. Probably wanting to ensure a comfortable win, Fenerbahce's head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius subbed Hayes-Davis in to start the third quarter.

Hayes-Davis responded and had 36 points at the end of the quarter, while Fenerbahce went on a huge run to ensure a 30-point lead coming into the fourth quarter. That's when the interesting part happened.

Fully knowing that the scoring record might be reached, Fenerbahce kept Hayes-Davis on the court, drawing play after play to involve him offensively. As the forward approached the record, ALBA started double and sometimes even triple-teaming him, not wanting to be the team to have allowed the EuroLeague record to take place against them.

ALBA's head coach Israel Gonzalez even took a seemingly pointless coach challenge during the last minute of the game purely so that his team can hold the ball longer and not allow Hayes-Davis a chance at the record. Some ALBA players purposefully fouled other Fenerbahce players to not allow Hayes-Davis the ball as well.

Ultimately, Hayes-Davis managed to reach the coveted 50-point mark during the last possession of the game (with an uncalled halfcourt violation, though).

Conclusion

In the early days, the EuroLeague's scoring records were reached in competitive games between the top teams in the most important stages of the competition. As the game became more global, the tendencies that have been alive in the NBA for decades came to Europe as well.

Lopsided matchups are a breeding ground for scoring records, and it's not going to change. Despite it being a one-sided game, let's hope each such achievement garners its deserved attention, no matter how it was reached.

As long as players are celebrated for their tremendous performances, the EuroLeague is in good hands.

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