Getting Started with NBA Stats
I got curious about crazy scoring nights after watching a game last week where some dude hit 60 points. Started wondering who does that most often. Pulled out my laptop around 10PM, opened regular Chrome browser – no fancy data science tools for me.
The Data Struggle
First I searched “NBA most 50 point games” but only got random forum arguments. Opened the NBA stats website – man their filters are terrible. Clicked season-by-season from 2000s backwards like digging through attic boxes. Copied names and numbers into Excel. Almost quit when I hit seasons from the 60s because some names look like typos.
-
Major headaches I ran into:
- Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game kept breaking my sort function
- Kobe’s seasons showed different totals depending which tab I clicked
- My cat walked on keyboard and deleted 1998 data
Around midnight I made coffee and yelled at screen when finding Jordan’s entries. Why? Because the site showed regular season and playoffs separate! Had to combine them manually like counting beans.
Shocking Discoveries
When I finally sorted the list, my jaw dropped. That old dude Wilt? 118 times hitting 50+! Thought spreadsheet glitched until I triple-checked. Modern players look cute next to him:
- Harden with 23 – mostly free throws huh?
- Lebron’s 14 seems low for someone playing 20 years
- Luka already has 6 at age 24 – future record breaker?
Weirdest finding? Those 1960s scores look fake. Wilt averaging 50 points a whole season? No way today’s players could do that with travel schedules and defense.
Closing Thoughts
Stayed up till 3AM verifying MJ’s 31 games. My takeaways? NBA website needs redesign, cats shouldn’t sit near keyboards, and 50-point games ain’t what they used to be. That Chamberlain record might live forever unless they change rules again. Might do playoff-only version next week!
