This is a list of the top 25 individual game scores attained by a player in the National Basketball Association. An unofficial statistic, these performances are analyzed and quantified by how impressive the all-around game is by the Hollinger Game Score formula devised by APBRmetrics statistician John Hollinger. It is a very similar measure to Player Efficiency Rating in that it focuses upon how effective and efficient a player's performance is, except that it does not factor in time played in the game and other tangibles, such as the strength of the opponent, the strength of the opponent's defense, the strength of the primary defender, and the location at which the game is played. For more on the Game Score formula, see the main article on John Hollinger.
In order to obtain the score of a player's performance, the entire box score is needed, so it is impossible to calculate a score for a game before the 1978 season, and at the moment, before the 1986-87 NBA season. So, this list currently entails all games played in the past 21 NBA seasons.
Here are the top 25 Hollinger Game Scores since the 1986-87 season (past 21 seasons). Michael Jordan leads the list, with 14 of the 27 top performances.
| Rank | Score | Date | Player | Opponent | Minutes | FGM-FGA | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Off Reb | Def Reb | Tot | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | Fouls | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 64.6 | 3-28-1990 | Michael Jordan | at Cleveland Cavaliers | 50 | 23-37 | 2-6 | 21-23 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 69 | |
| 2 | 63.5 | 1-22-2006 | Kobe Bryant | vs Toronto Raptors | 42 | 28-46 | 7-13 | 18-20 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 81 | |
| 3 | 60.2 | 1-27-1990 | Karl Malone | vs Milwaukee Bucks | 33 | 21-26 | 0-0 | 19-23 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 61 | |
| 4 | 54.7 | 4-3-1988 | Michael Jordan | at Detroit Pistons | 42 | 21-27 | 0-1 | 17-19 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 59 | |
| 5 | 51.8 | 4-24-1994 | David Robinson | at Los Angeles Clippers | 44 | 26-41 | 1-2 | 18-25 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 71 | |
| 6 | 51.2 | 2-26-1987 | Michael Jordan | vs New Jersey Nets | 37 | 16-25 | 0-0 | 26-27 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 58 | |
| 6 | 51.2 | 11-3-1989 | Michael Jordan | vs Cleveland Cavaliers | 47 | 19-31 | 1-2 | 15-17 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 54 | |
| 8 | 50.9 | 3-16-2007 | Kobe Bryant | at Portland Trail Blazers | 50 | 23-39 | 8-12 | 11-12 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 65 | |
| 9 | 50.4 | 11-28-1992 | Reggie Miller | at Charlotte Hornets | 38 | 16-29 | 4-11 | 21-23 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 57 | |
| 10 | 50.0 | 3-24-1990 | Tom Chambers | vs Seattle SuperSonics | 42 | 22-32 | 0-0 | 16-18 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 60 | |
| 11 | 49.8 | 4-29-1992 | Michael Jordan | at Miami Heat | 43 | 20-30 | 0-0 | 16-18 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 56 | First Round Playoffs |
| 12 | 49.7 | 4-12-1987 | Michael Jordan | vs Indiana Pacers | 42 | 19-27 | 0-0 | 15-18 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 53 | |
| 12 | 49.7 | 12-20-2005 | Kobe Bryant | vs Dallas Mavericks | 33 | 18-31 | 4-10 | 22-25 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 62 | |
| 14 | 49.6 | 11-30-1988 | Charles Barkley | vs Portland Trail Blazers | 41 | 13-16 | 0-1 | 15-20 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 46 | |
| 14 | 49.6 | 12-13-1994 | Willie Burton | vs Miami Heat | 43 | 12-19 | 5-8 | 24-28 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 53 | |
| 16 | 49.5 | 3-6-2000 | Shaquille O'Neal | at Los Angeles Clippers | 45 | 24-35 | 0-0 | 13-22 | 7 | 16 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 61 | |
| 17 | 48.6 | 4-20-1986 | Michael Jordan | at Boston Celtics | 53 | 22-41 | 0-0 | 19-21 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 63 | First Round Playoffs |
| 17 | 48.6 | 12-23-1992 | Michael Jordan | at Washington Bullets | 42 | 22-37 | 6-8 | 7-8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 57 | |
| 18 | 48.0 | 1-16-1993 | David Robinson | vs Charlotte Hornets | 40 | 20-28 | 1-2 | 11-15 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 52 | |
| 20 | 47.9 | 1-21-1989 | Michael Jordan | vs Phoenix Suns | 41 | 20-28 | 0-0 | 13-15 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 53 | |
| 21 | 47.8 | 4-16-1987 | Michael Jordan | vs Atlanta Hawks | 41 | 22-38 | 0-3 | 17-21 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 61 | |
| 22 | 47.7 | 3-7-1996 | Michael Jordan | vs Detroit Pistons | 38 | 21-28 | 2-4 | 9-10 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 53 | |
| 23 | 47.6 | 3-4-1987 | Michael Jordan | at Detroit Pistons | 43 | 22-39 | 0-0 | 17-18 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 61 | |
| 24 | 46.9 | 3-18-1988 | Michael Jordan | vs Boston Celtics | 42 | 19-32 | 1-2 | 11-11 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 50 | |
| 25 | 46.8 | 12-22-1989 | Karl Malone | at Charlotte Hornets | 43 | 22-28 | 0-0 | 8-12 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 52 | |
| 26 | 46.7 | 1-15-1989 | Michael Jordan | vs Boston Celtics | 41 | 13-23 | 0-3 | 16-17 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 42 | |
| 26 | 46.7 | 3-23-1996 | Hakeem Olajuwon | vs Minnesota Timberwolves | 44 | 16-23 | 0-0 | 14-18 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 46 |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, national, basketball, association, top, individual, game and/or scores:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The cultivation of one set of faculties tends to the disuse of others. The loss of one faculty sharpens others; the blind are sensitive in touch. Has not the extreme cultivation of the commercial faculty permitted others as essential to national life, to be blighted by disease?”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)
“A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,”
—John Drinkwater (1882–1937)
“Gossip, then, is content, a message about people; rumor is a process. It takes a bit of gossip and reshapes it, modifies it in some way, and passes it along from individual to individual in different ways.”
—Jack Levin (b. 1941)
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“So, Willy, let you and me be wipers
Of scores out with all men—especially pipers;
And, whether they pipe us free, from rats or from mice,
If we’ve promised them aught, let us keep our promise.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)