By Anadolu Agency
January 3, 2023 5:30 amANKARA
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell was on fire in a Monday NBA game as he scored a career-high 71 points against the Chicago Bulls, one of the most epic performances in league history.
Mitchell gave massive help to his team as the Cavaliers beat Bulls 145-134 in overtime at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The 26-year-old US star scored 71 points and made 11 assists for the victors to be the first player to reach these statistics.
It is also the Cavaliers’ franchise record.
After the game, his teammates circled Mitchell to applaud and soak him with water bottles for his performance.
Fourth in the Eastern Conference, the Cavaliers had their 24th win of the regular season.
The Bulls are 11th in the same conference with a 16-21 win/loss record.
Mitchell also became the seventh player in NBA to score at least 70 points in a single game and the first since Devin Booker did in 2017.
Booker, a Phoenix Suns regular, scored 70 points against the Boston Celtics on March 24, 2017. But the Celtics outlasted the Suns 130-120.
One of the NBA greats and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020, tallied 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006.
It is still one of the greatest individual performances in the league.
In a historic game, the Lakers beat the Raptors 122-104, a comeback victory at home.
But no one could ever break Wilt Chamberlain’s record in this field. Chamberlain, who died in 1999, scored 100 points in a 1962 NBA game.
On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors’ Chamberlain set the NBA single-game scoring record by dropping 100 points against the New York Knicks.
The Warriors won that match 169-147.
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