NBA Scoring Title: Repeat of David Robinson’s 71-point game?

With one game to go in the 1993-94 NBA season, Shaquille O’Neal held the NBA scoring title with 29.31 points per game. David Robinson trailed with 29.27. After the final game, Robinson had won the scoring title, with a lead of 29.8 to 29.3. What happened?

Shaq had nudged his average up with a 32-point game to close the season. David Robinson, meanwhile, scored 71 points.

The 54-27 Spurs were firmly in 4th place in the West. The opposing 27-54 Clippers were firmly in 11th. Neither team had anything to play for in the standings, and yet Spurs star David Robinson played 44 of 48 minutes, took 41 shots and 25 free throws, scoring the second-highest non-Wilt Chamberlain single-game point total in NBA history to that point.

NBA Scoring Title: Repeat of David Robinson’s 71-point game?

The game was impressive, no doubt, but also a blatant case of stat-padding to win the scoring title. The Spurs even intentionally fouled Clippers players to get more scoring chances for Robinson, despite holding a comfortable lead. Could something similar happen to decide this year’s scoring title?

The NBA scoring title race is neck and neck (and neck) this season – with about 10 games to go for each team, LeBron James has scored 30.0 PPG, while Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are both hot on his tail with 29.8.

With each star expected to finish the season having played around 65 games, a 0.2 point gap could be made up by a 50 point explosion on the final game of the season. It’s not David Robinson’s 71, but will we see a player blatantly stat-pad for the scoring title to close this season?

If so, it’s unlikely to come from Giannis. Just yesterday, the Athletic released an interview with Giannis where, when asked if he was concerned about the MVP this season, Giannis said “Oh hell no.” Individual accolades like the scoring title don’t seem to be of much concern to him.

Embiid seemed to indicate some interest when asked about the scoring title over the All-Star break, saying in an interview that “it would be a huge accomplishment, especially as a dominant big man. I’m still 7-foot-2 and 500 pounds so I guess you could say that I’m a big man, but it would be a huge accomplishment.”

LeBron’s interest in individual accolades almost goes without saying at this point, so it would be unsurprising, should he lose his lead, for him to go all out to take home the scoring title this season.

It would be an unbelievable accomplishment for a player in his 19th season, regardless of any stat padding. For reference, the previous PPG record for a player in his 19th season was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 14.6.

The last day of the season features both a 76ers and a Lakers game (the exact times are still TBD), so either Embiid or LeBron will have a chance to have the last laugh.

The NBA post-All-Star break has seen a nearly unprecedented amount of high-scoring individual performances. With the scoring title coming down to the wire, look out for one last explosion to close the 2021-22 regular season.