The Indiana Pacers have the longest drought in the NBA right now in one of the least important categories in basketball: 50-point games. Their last player to score half of Wilt Chamberlain's 100 was TJ Warren, who managed to score 53 in his infamous "Bubble Warren" stint.
As fun as that performance was, it kind of proves how nonsensical any of this is. Warren's performance came in a completely atypical basketball situation in which players were shooting historically high percentages on jumpers because of the lack of outside intervention.
Warren made nine threes in that 53-point game against the Philadelphia 76ers. He averaged 31 per game before the bubble playoffs started. This came from a player with a career average of 14.3 points, who never even averaged 20 points per contest.
There will be no disrespect of Bubble Warren here, nor of the bubble as a whole, which does not deserve the asterisk status that fans sometimes give it. It just remains true that one game should never be the focus of a year.
Is one explosive performance more impressive than a season of good ones? Absolutely not. Malachi Flynn scored 50 for the Detroit Pistons the year before they cut him. A career high is no indication of greatness. No one puts Wilt in their top-five all-time. The same is/should be true for Kobe Bryant and Bam Adebayo.
Still, it's a fun exercise to explore. It's been six years since Indiana saw someone in their team's jerseys put up more points than there are minutes in a game. While the focus will surely be on team success, who could be the next player to pull off that feat?
Pacers do not have scorers, they have players who can score
Despite being the team's best player – one would hope – even after his Achilles tear, the first name to come to mind is Tyrese Haliburton. The superstar point guard will have the ball in his hands more than any other Pacer and has a career high of 44 points, proving that big nights are indeed possible.
However, anyone who has watched the Pacers can tell you that Haliburton is not one to pump his own stats, often preferring to rack up high assist numbers instead of scoring for himself. While a big game is certainly something that has and will happen, they usually come in the form of record-setting triple-doubles, not point totals.
Pascal Siakam is likely the best option, having scored 52 of his own against the New York Knicks back when he was a member of the Toronto Raptors. Siakam is the Pacers' default scorer, operating as the team's most-used isolation scorer and most preferred play finisher. However, that role may be getting challenged, making it harder for Pascal to rack up high-scoring nights.
Ivica Zubac is an enigma here. The Croatian big man was such a big investment for the Pacers that they can't afford to not highlight him. Simultaneously, if his success at FIBA Qualifiers is any sign, he is more than happy to minimize his shot attempts in pursuit of team success.
Maybe the answer is in Andrew Nembhard, who simply has the best combination of scoring aesthetics and isolation opportunities to be considered as a player both good enough and (for lack of a better term) selfish enough to go for it.
The funniest option, however, is that someone comes out of nowhere like Warren once did to score 50 points in a random November evening.
Kelly Oubre, it's your time to shine!
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