Okay, so I got this idea buzzing in my head the other day. I was thinking about those crazy scoring explosions you sometimes see in basketball, and it hit me: what’s the actual record for points scored in just one half of an NBA game? Not the whole game, just a half.

My Search Begins
So, first thing I did was just jump on my computer. Opened up a browser, you know the drill. My go-to usually starts broad. I typed in something simple like “most points NBA half record”.
You get a bunch of results right away, obviously. Lots of articles, lists, forum discussions. I started clicking through a few. Some mentioned high-scoring games, but weren’t specific about just one half. You gotta be careful, sometimes headlines grab you but the details are different.
Filtering the Noise
I saw Wilt Chamberlain’s name pop up a lot, which isn’t surprising, the guy holds like half the records anyway. But I needed confirmation it was specifically for one half. I kept digging, looking for official-looking stat sites or historical game recaps.
- Checked some well-known sports statistics websites.
- Looked for box scores or summaries of famous high-scoring games.
- Tried refining my search terms, maybe adding “Wilt Chamberlain” or specific years if I saw hints.
Pinpointing the Record
After a bit of clicking and reading, I started seeing a consistent number: 59 points. And the name attached was indeed Wilt Chamberlain. Happened back in 1962, during his legendary 100-point game, apparently he scored 59 in the second half of that one. That’s just wild to think about.

Then, I saw another name mentioned quite a bit for a more recent performance, Devin Booker. He had that insane 70-point game a few years back. I looked into that one too. Found out he scored 51 points in the second half of that game against the Celtics. Still absolutely nuts, but Wilt’s 59 seems to be the big one for a single half.
Wrapping Up
So yeah, that was my little dive into the record books. Started with a simple question, did some digging online, sifted through the info, and landed on Wilt Chamberlain’s 59-point half as the record. It’s always fun to track down these kinds of stats. Took a bit of time, but now I know!