Luka Doncic scores 73 points – tied for 4th most by a player in an NBA game

Luka Doncic has seen Joel Embiid’s 70-point outburst from earlier this week, and raised it.

Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid have now done in one week what only eight other players have done in NBA history – score more than 70 points in a game. Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks’ star guard, scored 73 points Friday night in his team’s 148-143 road win against Atlanta – a tally that is tied for fourth highest by a player in one NBA contest. Only Wilt Chamberlain (100 points and 78 points in the 1960s) and Kobe Bryant (81 in 2006) scored more in an NBA game. Besides Doncic, Chamberlain and David Thompson (1978) also finished a game with 73. “Get a win, man. We’ve been struggling lately – the mindset was get a win,” Doncic said about his Mavericks (25-20) after the game. “We played great. We struggled a little bit on defense, but we played great on offense.” The Slovenian becomes the 10th player in NBA history to score at least 70 points in a game, and the second in the past week after Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers star center, dropped 70 points in a victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. Doncic scored early and often Friday, opening the first half with 41 points against the Hawks – a team that drafted Doncic in 2018 but promptly traded him for Trae Young and a draft pick.