So, I was thinking about basketball the other day, just remembering some crazy games. And this question just popped into my head: who actually scored the most points ever in just the first half of an NBA game? Not the whole game, just the first 24 minutes. Seemed like a fun piece of trivia to know.
My Little Search Adventure
Naturally, I pulled out my phone and started searching. My process was pretty straightforward, nothing fancy:
- First try: “most points in first half nba”
- Second try: “nba highest scoring first half record”
- Looked through some sports news sites and stat pages.
At first, I saw a lot of chatter about big scoring games overall. You know, the usual legends came up – Kobe’s 81, Wilt’s 100. But I had to keep focused on just the first half stat. It wasn’t immediately obvious, lots of different scoring feats get mentioned together.
Finding the Answer
A few names kept bubbling up related to huge halves. I saw David Robinson mentioned for a big scoring burst to win a scoring title once, but that was a whole game thing I think. Then I saw Karl-Anthony Towns had a monster first half pretty recently, which got a lot of headlines. That almost threw me off, thinking maybe he set the record.
But I kept digging on the more official-looking stat sites. And the name that stands alone at the very top for the first half? Wilt Chamberlain. Of course, it’s Wilt. It almost always is when you’re talking about unbreakable scoring records from back in the day.
During his legendary 100-point game back on March 2, 1962, Wilt apparently dropped 59 points in the first half alone. Fifty-nine! Before they even got to the locker room for halftime. It’s honestly hard to wrap your head around scoring that much, that fast, against professional players.
So, that was my little quest. Started with simple curiosity, did a bit of online digging, and confirmed it was Wilt the Stilt yet again. Just another reminder of how ridiculously dominant that guy was. Pretty cool finding that out.
