The seventh NBA player in history to score 70 points or more points in a game is now Donovan Mitchell. The Cleveland Cavaliers star joined Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, David Thompson, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor, and Devin Booker in the exclusive 70-point club after scoring an astonishing 71 points in the team’s 145-134 victory over the Chicago Bulls. Mitchell currently has the most points scored in a single game of any active player in the NBA, after Booker scored precisely 70. It was Chamberlain’s sixth game with 70 or more points, making it the 12th 70-point game in the history of the NBA.
All 71 of Mitchell’s points were necessary for Cleveland to win. Without Mitchell’s heroics, the Cavaliers would have lost a fourth straight game after losing their previous three. A miss, an offensive rebound, and a basket were all that Mitchell needed with fewer than five seconds remaining to send a 130-128 contest into overtime. Mitchell performed the low-odds comeback successfully, much like Luka Doncic did the previous week.
Mitchell overshadowed DeMar DeRozan’s 44-point masterpiece by scoring 13 of Cleveland’s 15 points in overtime. In the end, Mitchell’s performance was superior to any single-game scoring total in modern NBA history. Mitchell not only broke the 57-point mark set by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on consecutive occasions for Cleveland, but he also scored the most points in an NBA game since Kobe Bryant scored 81 in 2006.
Mitchell was already having the season of his life for a Cleveland squad vying for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. He is flirting with a 50-40-90 shooting split while averaging a career-high 28 points per game. His outstanding season was capped off by this game, which was not only the best of his career but also one of the most remarkable performances by a player in basketball history.