2025-26 NBA

[jncuse]

I just got an alert on my phone that Bam Adebayo has scored 83 points tonight. Was watching baseball and hockey, so had no clue anything was going on.

This has got to be the most random and unexpected event in sports in 2026... and perhaps the 2020's.

 

[HyattsCuse]

I just got an alert on my phone that Bam Adebayo has scored 83 points tonight. Was watching baseball and hockey, so had no clue anything was going on.

This has got to be the most random and unexpected event in sports in 2026... and perhaps the 2020's.

What’s crazy is he didn’t even shoot well. He finished 20 for 43 from the field and 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

36 for 43 from the foul line is a lot of free throws!

 

[OttoinGrotto]

What’s crazy is he didn’t even shoot well. He finished 20 for 43 from the field and 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

36 for 43 from the foul line is a lot of free throws!

Would be nice if they played a little thing called defense in the NBA.

:huffs and adjusts waist band of pants:

 

[jncuse]

What’s crazy is he didn’t even shoot well. He finished 20 for 43 from the field and 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

36 for 43 from the foul line is a lot of free throws!

So it was basically like a video game, where you just decide I'm going to let one guy take all the shots?

Also, How does one player get 43 free throws in a game? Especially when they are seemingly hanging out near the 3 point line a lot of the game (22 attempts).

None of this makes sense to me.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

So it was basically like a video game, where you just decide I'm going to let one guy take all the shots?

Also, How does one player get 43 free throws in a game? Especially when they are seemingly hanging out near the 3 point line a lot of the game (22 attempts).

None of this makes sense to me.

Fraudulent

 

[Knicks411]

Would be nice if they played a little thing called defense in the NBA.

:huffs and adjusts waist band of pants:

I know you’re doing a bit but the funny thing is once bam got close 70 or so I think the wizards probably played harder on defense than they have in a whole. They were face guarding him, doubling him once he got it, etc.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I know you’re doing a bit but the funny thing is once bam got close 70 or so I think the wizards probably played harder on defense than they have in a whole. They were face guarding him, doubling him once he got it, etc.

Definitely was a bit, and yeah, at that point it goes one of two ways. Either the opponent starts getting excited for the guy, or pride kicks in and they go hard.

Side note that is actually relevant - Back in middle school we had a legendary sub for social studies one day. We walk in to class, see this dude we've never seen before. He starts class by telling us he thinks he can review the material our teacher left for us in about 10 minutes. He then pulls out a VHS of NBA highlights from under the desk and says that if someone is willing to go to the library and grab a TV and VCR on rollers that we'll watch that video for the rest of class time.

Not only did we learn about the swinging gate maneuver used to defend the edge at the Battle of Gettysburg, we also saw some amazing hoops, including video from a huge game Larry Bird had. He was making threes like crazy (which in that era was rare) to the point where you could see the guys on the Atlanta Hawks bench reacting and high fiving each other each time Bird hit another one.

In my head it's fun if that's what happened for Adebayo last night.

 

[Newhouser]

It was an abomination. An embarrassment to the league.

A guy who averages less than 5 FT attempts a game gets 43? Heard today in Kobe's 81 point game he took 20 and MJ's career high attempts for a game was 28.

Spoelstra using challenges up nearly 20. Fouling the Wizards to get the ball back and Bam firing like Kobe on speed. Wizards aren't free from shots here either - try defending a bit in the first 3 and a half quarters and why bother double face guarding - at 70 it was embarrassing?

Isola had a good point today - its because of tanking. When you have match-ups with tankers against teams playing for something - you are going to have guys go off, and lets be real - Bam isn't even that good an offensive player.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

It was an abomination. An embarrassment to the league.

A guy who averages less than 5 FT attempts a game gets 43? Heard today in Kobe's 81 point game he took 20 and MJ's career high attempts for a game was 28.

Spoelstra using challenges up nearly 20. Fouling the Wizards to get the ball back and Bam firing like Kobe on speed. Wizards aren't free from shots here either - try defending a bit in the first 3 and a half quarters and why bother double face guarding - at 70 it was embarrassing?

Isola had a good point today - its because of tanking. When you have match-ups with tankers against teams playing for something - you are going to have guys go off, and lets be real - Bam isn't even that good an offensive player.

Hopefully prop bets are being analyzed closely

 

[Knicks411]

I thought the last 2 minutes or so were farcical on both sides. Miami fouling to get the ball back and then wash was fouling if anyone other than bam got it so that player would be shooting.

I will say, the wilt 100 point game was similar as well. (Both teams fouling) So it’s not like this never happened before.

 

[upperdeck]

Wilts game though is not the anomaly though. They played 2 days later and he scores 58 and 61 the game before the 100. the game before that 65 and Petite had 49.

They score a ton of pts when he played.

they took 115 shots in the 100pt game but they often took over 100 and scored in the 140s too in other games. That game he took more shots but he shot 57% so.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

It was an abomination. An embarrassment to the league.

A guy who averages less than 5 FT attempts a game gets 43? Heard today in Kobe's 81 point game he took 20 and MJ's career high attempts for a game was 28.

Spoelstra using challenges up nearly 20. Fouling the Wizards to get the ball back and Bam firing like Kobe on speed. Wizards aren't free from shots here either - try defending a bit in the first 3 and a half quarters and why bother double face guarding - at 70 it was embarrassing?

Isola had a good point today - its because of tanking. When you have match-ups with tankers against teams playing for something - you are going to have guys go off, and lets be real - Bam isn't even that good an offensive player.

Eh, tanking can be blamed for a lot of things but I don't think this is one of them.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

So it was basically like a video game, where you just decide I'm going to let one guy take all the shots?

Also, How does one player get 43 free throws in a game? Especially when they are seemingly hanging out near the 3 point line a lot of the game (22 attempts).

None of this makes sense to me.

They were double and triple teaming him but just couldn’t stop fouling him

 

[STEVEHOLT]

this would be like Victor Hedman scoring 8 goals in a game., 3 on penalty shots.

 

[Newhouser]

Eh, tanking can be blamed for a lot of things but I don't think this is one of them.

Oh I do - Washington is tanking and has a roster filled with guys who don't know how to play. Also their coach is obviously an idiot - face guarding a 7 footer with 2 guys full court is a recipe for fouls.

bottom line a roster that has no business being in the league - got torched by a good but not great player. Finally tried to say "no more" and didn't have the skill or knowledge on how to do it properly.

Why is the roster so inept - tanking.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Oh I do - Washington is tanking and has a roster filled with guys who don't know how to play. Also their coach is obviously an idiot - face guarding a 7 footer with 2 guys full court is a recipe for fouls.

bottom line a roster that has no business being in the league - got torched by a good but not great player. Finally tried to say "no more" and didn't have the skill or knowledge on how to do it properly.

Why is the roster so inept - tanking.

But you're talking about one case of a player having a statistically improbable game. We're not seeing that happen with greater frequency.

 

[Newhouser]

But you're talking about one case of a player having a statistically improbable game. We're not seeing that happen with greater frequency.

Yet - my guess is as this season winds down tanking teams against teams fighting for a playoff spot will result in more 60 plus point games. Not the insanity of the other night but high point game.

Isola had an interesting stat today on his Sirius show - take away FT points from all the top scoring games in NBA history and Bam ranks 70th.

Will still first with 72, Kobe second with 61 and Rick Barry third - with 60, down from only 64 as he only shot 4 FTS.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Yet - my guess is as this season winds down tanking teams against teams fighting for a playoff spot will result in more 60 plus point games. Not the insanity of the other night but high point game.

Isola had an interesting stat today on his Sirius show - take away FT points from all the top scoring games in NBA history and Bam ranks 70th.

Will still first with 72, Kobe second with 61 and Rick Barry third - with 60, down from only 64 as he only shot 4 FTS.

Sounds like we have a testable hypothesis.

 

[Newhouser]

Sounds like we have a testable hypothesis.

Ha I was told there would be no science.

 

[M2MPrinciples]

It was an abomination. An embarrassment to the league.

A guy who averages less than 5 FT attempts a game gets 43? Heard today in Kobe's 81 point game he took 20 and MJ's career high attempts for a game was 28.

Spoelstra using challenges up nearly 20. Fouling the Wizards to get the ball back and Bam firing like Kobe on speed. Wizards aren't free from shots here either - try defending a bit in the first 3 and a half quarters and why bother double face guarding - at 70 it was embarrassing?

Isola had a good point today - its because of tanking. When you have match-ups with tankers against teams playing for something - you are going to have guys go off, and lets be real - Bam isn't even that good an offensive player.

Thing is the nature of basketball is such that you can't really score more than around 70 within a "normal" flow of the game. The lone exception I can think of is Luka's 73-point game a few years ago. He shot 85% on twos and 8-13 from deep and attempted "only" 16 free throws but made 15 of them. Even with all of that it was close until the final minute with Dallas winning by 5.