Steph scored 60, but it wasn’t the result the Warriors were hoping for against the Hawks
We’re just past the halfway point of the 2023-24 NBA season, and the biggest talking point of the season thus far has been the polarizing scoring boom that is happening both on a team and individual level. In reality, team scoring is not up all that much… the league-wide scoring average is up by less than one point per game from last season, and up just four points from five years ago. But then there’s this: with Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry‘s 60-point performance against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night, there have now been six 60-point games in the 2023-24 NBA season — including a pair of 70-point performances from Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic — which is the third-most in any NBA season in league history, trailing only two seasons from the early 1960’s (h/t ESPN.com).
Whether this individual scoring explosion is a good thing or bad thing for the state of the NBA is a debate worth having. It’s also worth considering whether or not having one individual player dominate the ball so much is a scheme conducive to winning, since three of the six 60-point performances we’ve seen so far this NBA season, including Stephen Curry’s 60-piece against the Hawks — have come in losses.
Now the contrarian could simply make the ill-conceived point that Curry, Towns and Booker all simply didn’t score enough for their teams to win, considering Giannis Antetokounmpo (64 points), Joel Embiid (70 points), and Luka Doncic (73 points) all were victorious in their scoring outbursts. To me, that seems like an unfair ask of guys who were already carrying a ridiculous offensive burden. Steph Curry and the Warriors lost by 7 points in overtime to the Hawks, and the Wolves and Suns each lost one possession games when Towns and Booker went off. But what else could you ask for from those stars besides half of their team’s scoring output?
In the loss, Curry became the 10th player in NBA history with multiple 60-point games, joining Doncic, Towns, and Booker on a list that also includes Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Damian Lillard, Elgin Baylor, and James Harden.
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