NBA Christmas Day games

THE Philippines is between 12 and 15 hours ahead of the United States in time and so the Christmas Day games in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are actually being played this morning.
The five-game holiday slate features Boston vs. Reigning NBA titlist Toronto (1 a.m. Manila time), 2018-19 NBA regular-season champion Milwaukee at Philadelphia (3:30 a.m.), Houston at Golden State (6:00 a.m.), Los Angeles Clippers at Los Angeles Lakers  (9:00 a.m.) and New Orleans at Denver (11:30 a.m.).
If my informant is right, the Clippers vs. Lakers game at the Staples Center, where both teams have been co-tenants since the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, will be aired “live” by CNN Philippines.

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There have been ten 50-point individual performances in the NBA so far this season.
Topping the list with five games (60, 59, 55, 54 and 50) of at least 50 points is Houston Rockets meal ticket James Harden, the NBA’s current runaway scoring leader with a 38.5-point clip, the highest since Wilt Chamberlain’s 44.8 ppg in 80 games with the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors in 1962-63.
Harden and Portland’s Damian Lillard share the league’s highest single-game output with 60 points. Harden accomplished the feat in a 158-111 rout of the visiting Atlanta Hawks while Lillard turned in the trick in a 119-115 home loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
Other players to have reached the 50-point plateau are Golden State’s D’Angelo Russell (52, 125-119 overtime loss @ Minnesota), Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokuonmpo (50, 122-118 win vs. Utah), the LA Lakers’ Anthony Davis (50, 142-125 win vs. Minnesota), and Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving (50, 127-126 overtime loss vs. Minnesota).
Harden is an extraordinary scoring machine, but The Beard is nowhere close to what Chamberlain had achieved during his prime.
The Stilt chalked up 50 points or more in seven consecutive games during the 1961-62 season – an NBA record that still stands until now.
That memorable seven-game stretch coincidentally came during the 1961 Yuletide holidays from December 16 to 29.
Chamberlain commenced his explosive scoring feast by pouring in 50 points in the Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors’ 112-110 road triumph against the Chicago Packers (the forerunners of the Washington Wizards) on December 16. Three days later, the 7-foot-1 mastodon chalked up 57 as the Warriors downed the Cincinnati Royals (the predecessors of the Sacramento Kings), 117-110.
On December 20, Wilt logged 55 points in catapulting his club to a 117-102 rout of the Detroit Pistons.
It was another offensive blast for the University of Kansas product and former Harlem Globetrotter on Christmas Day as he pumped in 59 markers against the New York Knickerbockers, who nonetheless emerged victorious, 136-135, in a pair of five-minute extensions.
(The all-time single-game NBA scoring record on Christmas Day is 60 points, which New York Knick Bernard King registered against the visiting New Jersey Nets in a 120-114 loss in 1984.)
The next day (December 26), Wilt bounced back with a 51-point effort in propelling the Warriors to a 118-111 win over the Syracuse Nationals (the forerunners of the Philadelphia 76ers).
Chamberlain reached the 50-point plateau for a third consecutive night on December 27, collecting 53 scores in a 131-119 shellacking of the Knicks that was a sweet payback for a stinging setback to the Big Apple squad two days earlier.
The climax of Chamberlain’s NBA-record streak of seven consecutive 50-point performances came on December 29 when he torched the Los Angeles Lakers for 60 points in a 123-118 victory.
During the seven-game stretch, Wilt averaged 55 ppg as the Warriors were triumphant in six of the seven games.
The streak was halted on December 30 when Chamberlain managed “only” 41 points in a 116-111 overtime loss at the hands of his arch nemesis Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics.
Chamberlain, who additionally went six straight games with at least 50 points from January 11-19, 1962, eventually captured the NBA scoring crown during the 1961-62 campaign while averaging 50.4 points in 80 games for another unbreakable league mark.
He also established the NBA record for most 50-point games in a single season in reaching the half-century mark a total of 45 times. Included on the list is a mind-boggling 100-point blitz – still another NBA record that remains unchallenged until today – during the Warriors’ 169-147 win over the New York Knicks at Hershey, Pennsylvania on March 2, 1962.
Legendary LA Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who along with Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh was nominated last week for induction to the Basketball Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame next September, came closest with a 20-year NBA career-high 81 points in a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006 to break the previous franchise record of 71 set by Elgin Baylor.
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More notes on NBA Christmas Day games (December 26 Manila time)
+ The Los Angeles Lakers (including their time in Minneapolis from 1948-60) have the most victories on Christmas Day in NBA history with 23, including a 127-101 road rout of the then-reigning league champion Golden State Warriors a year ago. Heading into their marquee 2019 holiday game against the Kawhi Leonard-and-Paul George-powered Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center, where both are co-tenants (the Lakers have been designated as the “home” team in this one), the LeBron James-and-Anthony Davis-bannered Lakers own a 23-22 record. Note: James and Davis are questionable for the Lakers’ home game against the Denver Nuggets on December 22 (December 23 MT), the penultimate assignment before Christmas Day.
+ After losing six straight games on Christmas Day, the sad-sack New York Knicks are not among the 10 NBA teams on the five-game holiday slate this year. The Knicks are 22-31 in their NBA-record 53 appearances on Christmas Day. New York will not play on the holiday for the first time since 2015.
+ The Milwaukee Bucks, who currently own the best record in the NBA, will travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers on December 25. It marks the second consecutive year that the Bucks will see action on that day after having been away for a 41-year stretch (since 1977 – the longest Christmas Day drought in the NBA before last year when the Bucks faced the Knicks at the Madison Square Garden). The 76ers, including their stint as the Syracuse Nationals from 1949 to 1963, own a 17-14 record overall on the holiday.
+ The defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors, who will be hosting the Boston Celtics, will be playing on Christmas for the second consecutive year after being on the sidelines since 2001. The Celtics are 14-18 on the holiday but registered a 121-114 overtime win over Philadelphia a year ago.
+ The once-dominant-now-laughingstock Golden State Warriors will host NBA scoring leader James Harden the Houston Rockets during the Christmas quintuple-header. A year ago, the Warriors lost to the LA Lakers, 127-101, at the old Oracle Arena (Golden State has since moved from Oakland to San Francisco and now calls Chase Center as its home arena) with LeBron James suffering a groin injury that eventually sidelined him for more than 15 games with the Lakers. The Warriors are 12-16 on Christmas and 6-5 at home.
+ NBA teams with all-time winning records on Christmas Day are the Chicago Bulls (13-7, have not played since 2016), Dallas Mavericks (2-1, have not played since 2011), Houston Rockets (6-5, including stint in San Diego from 1967 to 1971), Miami Heat (10-2, have not played since 2015), Orlando Magic (5-4, have not played since 2011), Portland Trail Blazers (14-4, have not played since 2018), Sacramento Kings (18-11, including their stints with the Rochester Royals from 1948 to 1957, Cincinnati Royals from 1957 to 1972, Kansas City-Omaha Kings from 1972 to 1975 and Kansas City Kings from 1975 to 1985, have not played since 2003), Utah Jazz (5-2, including stint in New Orleans from 1974 to 1979,have not played since 2018) and Washington Wizards (16-7, including stints as the Chicago Packers from 1961 to 1962 and Chicago Zephyrs from 1962-63, have not played since 2017).
+ The Memphis Grizzlies (including stint in Vancouver from 1995 to 2001) and Charlotte Hornets (including stint as Charlotte Hornets from 1988 to 2002 and as the Charlotte Bobcats from 2004 to 2014) have never played a Christmas Day game.