1) Assists: 30 (Scott Skiles, 1990)
Over the course of 10 seasons, Skiles compiled 3,881 career assists, which places him 132nd in NBA history and falls about 12,000 shy of John Stockton’s record. But he made history one night in December of 1990 in what should been a completely forgettable contest between the 6-23 Magic and the 6-22 Nuggets. In a 155-112 Orlando win, Skiles finished the game with 22 points, six rebounds, and an NBA record 30 assists. The record had previously been 29, held by Kevin Porter for 11 years and prior to that was in the custody of Bob Cousy for nearly two decades. While Skiles hardly parlayed this performance into overall stardom, he was also far from a one-game wonder, eventually earning Most Improved Player for the ’90-’91 season and finishing as high as third in the NBA in assists per game in ’92-’93. In the three-plus decades since Skiles set his mark, no player has finished a game with more than 25 assists.
2) Blocks: 17 (Elmore Smith, 1973)
On October 9, 1973, Smith played in the first NBA game in which blocks were officially tracked and set the single game record with six. That lasted for just three days until it was broken by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the man whom Smith would eventually replace on the Bucks. But just a few weeks later, Smith took back the record with a mark that has now stood for half a century and counting. In a late October Lakers win over the Trail Blazers, Smith blocked an incredible 17 shots. For comparison’s sake, it took five years for a team to collectively block more than 17 shots in a single game, let alone one player. In the 50 years since Smith logged 17 blocks, only two other players have reached 15: Manute Bol (who did it twice), and Shaquille O’Neal. Smith also set the single season blocks record in ’73-’74 with 393 and held it for over a decade until Mark Eaton eclipsed it.
3) Turnovers: 14 (John Drew, 1978 and Jason Kidd, 2000)
Just as was the case with blocked shots, the single game record for turnovers dates all the way back to the first season the NBA started tracking. It came courtesy of Drew, an elite offensive talent on an otherwise anemic Hawks team. With Atlanta fighting for a playoff spot, Drew pressed the issue in a late season game against the Nets, finishing with 24 points (on 9-of-28 shooting), 15 rebounds, and 14 turnovers (all for naught, in a loss). With just three assists in the game, Drew also set the still standing record for worst assist-to-turnover +/- in a single game, at -11. When Kidd tied Drew’s record in 2000, he did so in logging a rare quadruple-double, with 18 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 14 turnovers in a Suns loss to the Knicks. Though he was a sure handed play maker, Kidd also had the rock in his posession a lot in his career and thus retired with 4,003 turnovers, which is seventh all-time.
4) Minutes played: 69 (Dale Ellis, 1989)
It was the longest game of the shot clock era, with the SuperSonics and Bucks facing off for 73 total minutes stretched over five overtimes, and Ellis was on the floor for 69 of them. He scored 53 points for the Sonics that night but it somehow wasn’t enough, with Milwaukee prevailing 155-154. Five other players logged 50+ minutes in this game: Seattle’s Xavier McDaniel with 68, Milwaukee’s Jay Humphries with 62, Milwaukee’s Alvin Robertson with 59, Seattle’s Derrick McKey with 53, and Seattle’s Nate McMillan with 51. Prior to this game, 23 other players had logged 60+ minutes in a single game before but it’s happened only nine times in the 34 years since, most recently courtesy of Paul Millsap in 2017. Maybe the most impressive element of Ellis’ record is that he was back on the floor for Seattle just two nights later, scoring 30 points in 41 minutes in a loss to the Bulls.
“It’s one of the most improbable box scores in NBA history, as [Adrian] Dantley finished the game with 46 points but just nine field goals (out of 15 attempts).”
5) Free throws: 28 (Wilt Chamberlain, 1962 and Adrian Dantley, 1984)
On the same night in Hershey, Pennsylvania that he notched the seemingly unbreakable record of 100 points in a single game, Chamberlain also set a record with 28 free throws. A notoriously poor free throw shooter, Chamberlain hit just 50.6% from the charity stripe in ’61-’62 but in this one game nailed 28 of his 32 attempts (87.5%). No one truly came close to matching those 28 free throws until Dantley regularly made a habit of it. A play making forward with a herky-jerky style custom made to draw fouls while driving to the paint, Dantley led the NBA in free throws five times in his career and was efficient at the line, hitting 81.8% of his attempts. He tied Chamberlain’s record in January 1984 by connecting on 28-of-29 free throws in a Jazz win over the Rockets. It’s one of the most improbable box scores in NBA history, as Dantley finished the game with 46 points but just nine field goals (out of 15 attempts).
6) Free throw attempts: 39 (Dwight Howard, 2012 and 2013)
The NBA strategy of intentionally fouling a poor free throw shooter dates back to Wilt Chamberlain, who shot just 51.1% from the foul line in his career and set a league record with 34 attempts in a 1962 game. The practice was revived in the ’90s by legendary coach Don Nelson and eventually dubbed “Hack-a-Shaq” in (dis-)honor of its most common victim, Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal never quite matched Chamberlain’s mark, though he did set the postseason free throw attempt record with 39 in game two of the 2000 NBA Finals. Instead, it was “Hack-a-Howard” that led to a record setting night, and he did it twice. The Magic center shot 39 free throws in a 2012 Magic win over the Warriors, making just 21 of them. A year later, Howard hit that mark again, this time as a member of the Lakers, making 25-of-39 free throws in a 2013 win over his former Orlando teammates.
7) Steals: 11 (Larry Kenon, 1976 and Kendall Gill, 1999)
20 different players have logged 10 steals in an NBA game, starting with Jerry West in ’73-’74. But that elusive 11th steal has only been attained by Kenon and Gill. The first instance was right after the ABA merger which brought Kenon into the NBA with the Spurs. One of the premier two-way forwards of his era, Kenon had a triple-double on the night he set the record, finishing with 29 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 steals in a win over the Kings. Only five other players have logged a triple-double with 10+ steals and 10+ rebounds: Larry Steele, Draymond Green, Alvin Robertson, Clyde Drexler, and Gill, who finished with 15 points, 11 steals, and 10 rebounds in a 1999 Nets win over the Heat. It happened late in the ’98-’99 lockout season and was quite indicative of the playing style of the time, with a final score of 88-77, both teams shooting under 40% from the field, and two players fouling out.
8) Personal fouls: 8 (Don Otten, 1949; Lew Hitch, 1952)
How does a player log more than six personal fouls in a game? In most cases, it’s due to Rule 3, Section I of the NBA rulebook, which states that teams must always field five players on the court, i.e., if only five players are left available and one fouls out, they’re allowed to stay in the game. This happened a few times in the chaotic early days of the NBA. Otten was the first to compile eight fouls in a regulation game, doing so early in the ’49-’50 season after five of his Blackhawks teammates had fouled out. Hitch tied that mark three years later on a night when the Lakers fielded just eight players at tip-off and lost six of them to fouling out (not only did Hitch reach eight fouls, George Mikan had seven). While a team hasn’t been reduced to less than five players due to foul outs in a game since 1953, there have been instances of players being allotted more than six due to negligence of officials. The most recent example happened in 1999, when backup Hawks forward Cal Bowdler did not leave the game after committing his sixth foul and was allowed to continue to play and commit one more, as the discrepancy wasn’t noticed until the next day.
Next up in Stat Leaders and Records
Mark of shame: 10 dishonorable NBA career records
Don’t you forget about me: 80 basketball moments from the ’80s that changed the sport forever
Leaders of the pack: 16 players who hold a major NBA statistical career record
Who did that?: 12 worst players to lead the NBA in a major statistical category
