Has any player ever averaged 40 PPG in a playoff series?

[3ball]

no real team defense, no zone / illegal defense... and they chucked 30-40 FGA like Jordan did...

[COLOR="White"]lemme troll him damnit :P[/COLOR]

In the picture below, weakside floor-spreaders have drawn defenders away from the strongside.. If Noah doesn't leave #20 Mosgov and flood to the strongside, the strongside will only have 2 defenders on it.. This demonstrates how spacing necessitates flooding - defenders must flood BACK to the strongside (Noah), only because they were originally drawn away by floor-spreaders on the weakside (Mosgov)






Otoh, previous eras didn't have weakside floor-spreaders drawing defenders away from the strongside, so the strongside was usually ALREADY FLOODED with all 5 defenders, as seen below:





Without 3-point shooting, previous eras didn't have spacing or weakside floor-spreaders to draw defenders away from the strongside, so players faced more defenders on the strongside than today's game.. In today's game, weakside spacing ensures a more porous distribution of strongside defenders that prevents today's players from ever having to face a strongside with all 5 defenders on it.

Accordingly, the stats of today's players should be downgraded appropriately, particularly the paint and at-rim efficiencies that benefited from the porous strongside defense.. It should also be noted that the porous spacing also allows today's players to take longer with decisions, while getting away with a weaker, less sophisticated repertoire and isolation ability.
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[oarabbus]

West, Baylor, Barry, and King did it as well

lmao at Wilt Chokerlain missing the list

[Eric Cartman]

lmao at Wilt Chokerlain missing the list

Only one of the Lakers big 3 not on it

[Mr Feeny]

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MJ did it 6 times[color="red"] (the pace in each series shown in red[/color]):


1988 1st Round, Cavs 5th ranked defense: 45.2 PPG... [COLOR="Red"](92.8 Pace)[/COLOR]
1992 1st Round, Miami 25th ranked defense 45.0 PPG... [COLOR="red"](92.6)[/COLOR]
1986 1st Round, Celtics 1st ranked defense: 43.7 PPG... [COLOR="Red"](97.5)[/COLOR]
1990 2nd Round, Sixers 16th ranked defense: 43.0 PPG... [COLOR="Red"](92.1)[/COLOR]
1993 NBA Finals, Phoenix 7th ranked defense: 41.0 PPG... [COLOR="Red"](89.7)[/COLOR]
1989 1st Round, Cavs 2nd ranked defense: 39.8 PPG... [COLOR="Red"](89.9)[/COLOR]


[COLOR="Red"]Today's pace: 93.9[/COLOR]


Has anyone else ever averagd 40+ PPG in any playoff series ever?.. Or is it only MJ again?
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Jerry West did it in the finals as well. Both he and MJ did that. It's just insane.

[Quickening]

What was league pace.... I don't care about the whole Bulls offence catering to MJ therefore lowering their pace.

[3ball]

What was league pace.... I don't care about the whole Bulls offence catering to MJ therefore lowering their pace.

when you're evaluating a specific player's PPG, the pace his team played is what's important - THAT'S the pace his PPG was achieved at.

[Prometheus]

3ball is the most dominant ISH poster I've ever seen. You can't even troll him - you think you're trolling him, but you're just setting him up to do what he came here to do. gg pauk, nice try, but you LOSE.

[SpanishACB]

3ball is the most dominant ISH poster I've ever seen. You can't even troll him - you think you're trolling him, but you're just setting him up to do what he came here to do. gg pauk, nice try, but you LOSE.

yeah but think about it, 3ball's agenda is proving the obvious

it's the most useless kind of determination

[Random_Guy]

and your point is 3ball? that mj is the best scorer ever? i dont see many people arguing that lol what are you trying to convince us of?

[DMV2]

I knew MJ did it but........GODDAMN! Six times?????

[Prometheus]

and your point is 3ball? that mj is the best scorer ever? i dont see many people arguing that lol what are you trying to convince us of?

In today's game, weakside floor-spreaders draw defenders away from the strongside - this is a staple of any spacing strategy today.. The only reason Joakim Noah must strongside flood in the picture below is because floor-spreaders on the weakside (including #20 Mosgov) have drawn defenders to that side and left only 2 defenders on the strongside - if Joakim doesn't flood, the strongside will be left with only 2 defenders on it:






But in previous eras, all 5 defenders typically stayed on the strongside because there were no weakside floor-spreaders to draw them away.. With everyone already on the strongside, there was no need to flood anyone to that side - everyone was already there.. But in today's game, the spacing (particularly weakside floor-spreaders) necessitates flooding and shading to the strongside.





Today's player simply faces less defenders on the strongside than previous eras due to spacing and weakside floor-spreaders that draw defenders away from the strongside.. Today's player never faces a strongside with all 5 defenders on it because weakside spacing ensures a more porous distribution of strongside defenders..

Accordingly, the stats of today's players should be downgraded appropriately, particularly the paint and at-rim efficiencies that benefited from the porous strongside defense.. It should also be noted that the porous spacing also allows today's players to take longer with decisions, while getting away with a weaker, less sophisticated repertoire and isolation ability.

[jzek]

Does anyone still need proof why Jordan is the GOAT?

How can anyone say LeBron or Kobe or anyone else over Jordan?

[Marchesk]

3ball is the most dominant ISH poster I've ever seen. You can't even troll him - you think you're trolling him, but you're just setting him up to do what he came here to do. gg pauk, nice try, but you LOSE.

His navigational efficiency is off the charts. Dominant and efficient. Lebron can only be one at a time, but 3Ball, like his idol, is both at once.

[ILLsmak]

his stans would be unbearable in the social media age, the thing is though we'd all be his stans.

maybe, I think he would still have tons of haters. He had his bad moments, too. I think he would have a bunch of fans when he was just getting 40ppg and losing, but once he started being a dynasty player, they'd be like ehhh...

I think today's fan is much more full of hate than a fan in the 80s early 90s. Dudes were like... yeah I ****ing hate that dude cuz he kills my team, but I don't think they were like LOL MJ SUX on message boards. or like 1-9 LOL.

-Smak

[Kblaze8855]

If there are playoff game logs of Baylors early career I never see them. I know he put up like 38-39ppg in two playoff runs to the finals and West did 41 or 42 a game in the playoffs one season he ws out.. I dont think West did 40 in each series though.

Not 40ppg....but this is Kareem in the 1977 playoffs vs the Warriors:


WCSF vs Warriors
Game 1- 27 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks, 7/12 FT
Game 2- 40 points, 19 rebounds, 3 assists, 9 blocks, 4/6 FT
Game 3- 28 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks, 12/20 FG, 4/7 FT
Game 4- 41 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 blocks, 11/16 FT
Game 5- 45 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, 16/28 FG, 13/18 FT
Game 6- 43 points, 20 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks, 17/25 FG, 9/11 FT
Game 7- 36 points, 26 rebounds, 0 blocks, 14/26 FG, 8/10 FT



He never really pushed his scoring the way he could have. I think he only had one 50 point game in his career but he would coast to 38-40 all the time. When he got old and some of the young stars thought they could handle him he embarrassed these dudes:

Having looked into it...he scored 40 on Hakeem in man to man coverage when he was 37 about to turn 38.

He scored 36 on 17-26 shooting when he was 38.

Next time they played he gave him 46/11 on 70% then then 43 on 68% shooting a couple weeks later. 14 days later he turned 39.

This is the LA times recap of the 46 point game:


Los Angeles Times:

While Akeem Olajuwon spent the whole game trying to steal the ball from Abdul-Jabbar, the Laker center spent the whole game throwing down a breathtaking series of hook shots on his way to a 46-point explosion.

For some reason, Rocket Coach Bill Fitch thinks it is a good idea to let Olajuwon go one-on-one with Abdul-Jabbar. It proved to be the biggest coaching blunder in any Laker game this season.

Abdul-Jabbar made 21 of 30 shots in 37 minutes to reach his high this season. He probably could have scored 50 points (his career high is 55) had he played any longer.



It was a 22 point blowout.

I feel like Ewing kinda got at him once and then Kareem gave him 44 or 46 the next time.

Kinda wish he were less laid back. Kareem could have done eye popping numbers most of his career(not that he didnt...but you know what I mean).