Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301240094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press and Knight-Ridder/Tribune reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MEMORABLE DAY FOR 50-50 SCORERS ROBINSON, JORDAN
When Michael Jordan scored 64 points and David Robinson 52 on Jan. 16, it marked the 11th time in NBA history that two players scored at least 50 points on the same day.Jordan has 30 games with 50 or more points in his career, but it was the first time that another player joined him with 50-plus on the same day.
Wilt Chamberlain, with 46 50-point games in 1961-62 alone, appears on the 50-point duos list seven times, five with Elgin Baylor and twice with Jerry West.
The first time it happened was Dec. 8, 1961, when Chamberlain and Baylor did it in the same game. Chamberlain had 78 points, still the No. 2 scoring game ever in the NBA, and Baylor 63 in a triple-overtime game at Philadelphia.
That game started a remarkable streak in which players scored more than 50 points on the same day five times in two months. Baylor and Chamberlain each had 52 points in different games on Dec. 13 and Chamberlain scored 60 and Baylor 52 in one game on Dec. 29 at Hershey, Pa., the site of Chamberlain's 100-point game three months later.
Then, in January 1962, Chamberlain and West each had 50 points on the same day twice.
The most memorable day with two 50-point scorers was April 9, 1978, the final day of that season. David Thompson, in second place in the scoring race, took over the lead with 73 points. George Gervin won the title with 63 points later in the day.
That game marked the only time in 27 years - from 1963 to 1990 - that two players scored 50 the same day.
Tom Chambers scored 60 points and Patrick Ewing 51 on March 24, 1990, and Charles Smith and Ewing, now teammates in New York, had 52 and 50 on Dec. 1, 1990. That was the last time it happened until Jordan and Robinson got hot last week.
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