In 4 days, the top of the scoring list changed hands 3 times. LeBron James, "Alphabet Brother" Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid competed for supremacy, setting off what may have been the fiercest scoring champion battle in history.
Embiid, who is temporarily at the top of the table, has only 0.042 points ahead of James, and he is no more than 0.093 points more than No. 3 Antetokounmpo.
The closest leading scorer battle of the past 50 years has occurred in the 1977-78 season, when the gap between George Gervin and David Thompson was 0.07 points. At this pace, this season is expected to break records. It is worth mentioning that the 1977-78 season was a duo between Gervin and Thompson, and this kind of three-man competition is very rare this season, the only time it occurred in the 1985-86 season.
How did this season's battle for the top scorer evolve into the situation it is today? Has this season been more intense than the three-man race 36 years ago?
From two-legged rivalry to three-legged stand-up
At the beginning of the season, the Nets and the Warriors, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry met. At that time, the Nets and Warriors were soaring, and Durant and Curry scored like probes, competing darkly in the scoring list. During that time, James and Embiid were not in good shape due to injuries and other reasons, and the only one who could pose a threat to Durant and Curry was Antetokounmpo.
Originally, Durant firmly occupied the top of the scoring list, but from November 9 to 19, 2021, in 10 days, Curry scored 50 points in one game, 40 points in two other games, and 37 points in one game, achieving a reversal of Durant. But then, as Curry's form plummeted, efficiency and production declined, Durant returned to the top of the scoring list.
After Curry withdrew from the scoring streak, James became Durant's strongest opponent. Anthony Davis was injured, James was pushed to the fifth position, James' scoring skyrocketed, they seemed to be back to the years of 12 years ago when they were competing for the top scorer, and as of January 15, 2022, James averaged 28.9 points per game, only 0.4 points away from Durant.
Injury knocking down Durant changed the situation of the scoring champion battle, Durant missed a large number of games after injury, making it impossible for him to meet the attendance rate this season and not be able to enter the scoring list. At the same time, Antetokounmpo, Embiid and James have all performed at a super high level in the past two months, improving their respective averages of 29 points per game, surpassing Durant together, and the battle for the top scorer has become a three-legged stand.
Judging by the situation at the time, the battle for the scoring champion was more like a competition between Embiid and Antetokounmpo, two middle-aged players at the peak of their careers, both of whom had occupied the top spot in the scoring table. But no one expected james to score at least 50 points in two games in March, and he became a spoiler.
On March 11, the top three scorers were Embiid, Antetokounmpo and James. On March 12, after James scored 50 points against the Wizards, the ranking rose directly from No. 3 to No. 1, with Embiid and Antetokounmpo coming in second. On March 13, Antetokounmpo scored 31 points for the Warriors and overtook Embiid to move up to second place. On March 14, Embiid scored 35 points against the Magic, James scored 31 points against the Suns, and embiid overtook James to the top of the table with a 0.042 point advantage after the game.
In just 4 days, the top of the scoring list has changed hands three times, and the number of times the score list has changed hands this season is rare in history. Less than a month after the end of the regular season, it is still unknown who will win the scoring king, but it is certain that this year's scoring champion battle is likely to continue until the last day of the regular season, and it is not impossible to have a dramatic result in the end.
The only regret is that this season's scoring champion battle can present an unprecedented battle of the four kings. Durant currently averages 29.6 points per game, a narrow 0.2 points gap with Embiid, who just scored 53 points against the Knicks. But according to the rules, even if Durant has the remaining 14 games full attendance, his attendance rate is less than 70%, and he cannot enter the scoring list.
Archaeology 36 years ago what happened to the scoring king battle
In the complicated historical data, most of the historical materials about the 1985-86 season scoring champion battle are only a simple summary of "Dominique Wilkins pressed Dantley and Ingrish to win the scoring king", which does not reflect the thrill of the three-male competition.
First of all, let's explain the basic background of the three males. Before the 1985-86 season, Wilkins had just played three seasons in the league, and he was saddled with the question of "bad shooting choices". Dantley, on the other hand, has averaged 30 points per game in four of his last five seasons, winning two leading scorers. Ingeish was the top scorer in the 1982–83 season. That is, Wilkins competed against two point-cutting maniacs who had already proven their scoring ability.
In the 1985–86 opener, Wilkins scored 32 points against the Bullets. In Game 4, Wilkins scored 30 points against the Celtics. In November, Wilkins scored at least 30 points in five games. From early December to early January 1986, he scored 30 points in 10 games, including 49 against the Rockets led by "Big Dream" Olajuwon, and hit a winning three-pointer in the final moments.
Wilkins' scoring performance sounds crazy, right? But Ingeish and Dantley were crazier, with Wilkins only ranking 3rd on the scoring list.
In a stalemate, Wilkins gained momentum and got better and better. From December 14, 1985 to February 12, 1986, Wilkins scored less than 20 points in nearly two months, scoring 30+ gradually became a routine operation for him, and the scoring championship battle entered a white-hot stage.
Since February, it was Ingrish who has dominated the scoring list most of the time, but on April 2, when playing the Blazers, Inglish scored only 18 points in a sluggish performance, and Dantley scored 42 points against the Clippers on the same day. The top of the scoring table changed hands, and Dantley, who averaged 29.75 points per game, narrowly rose to the top of the table. On the same day, Wilkins scored 33 points against the Bullets, and his average points per game improved to 29.64 points, 0.02 points higher than Ingesh, and moved up to no. 2 on the scoring list.
On April 5, Wilkins scored 46 points against the Bullets, after which his average score per game increased to 29.9 points per game, rising to the top of the scoring table for the first time in the season.
In the team's 80th game of the season against the Bulls, Wilkins scored 37 points, Wilkins averaged 29.93 points per game after the game for 1st place, Dantley ranked 2nd with 29.78 points, Ingeish was 3rd with 29.7 points, and the gap between 1st and 3rd was just 0.23 points. In the final 2 rounds of the regular season, anything can happen. As a result, Wilkins' game of the team's 81st game of the season against the Nets broke Dantley and Ingrish's hopes of a comeback.
Wilkins slashed 57 points on 37-time shooting in that game, and he scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first quarter and 41 points after the third quarter. Wilkins' 57 points per game was a career record, and his average of points per game improved to 30.285 points per game. Dantley and Ingeish knew that there was no hope of reversal, and simply chose a truce together in the final game of the regular season.
In the final game of the regular season, Wilkins scored 34 points, and his season average was fixed at 30.333 points per game, 0.504 points ahead of Dantley to win the scoring throne. Wilkins laughed: "I never thought I would be able to lead that much in the final game of the season. ”
The scoring king's overall champion spell
The scoring king is the embodiment of the star's personal scoring ability, and the essence of basketball is to send the ball to the basket, but the NBA history is vast for decades, and the scoring king can rarely be linked to the championship.
In NBA history, only four players have won the leading score + championship in the same season, namely George McCann, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan and O'Neal. Since O'Neal in 1999-2000, no leading scorer has led the team to a championship that season, and even Curry has failed to bring the Warriors championship in the all-time record-breaking season when curry won the top scorer and led the team to 73 wins.
It's no wonder that most of the players who win the top scorers are those who have a lot of ball rights and the most shots, and they are used to big packages. But in today's era, although the status of superstars in the team is still unshakable, the playoffs still need superstars to take over, but now is the era of strong and powerful, and it is difficult for a single star to win the team championship. That is to say, in this era, if you want to compete for the championship, you must be prepared to make sacrifices for the other giants of the team and give up the ball.
This year's scoring list presents a situation of three males competing for supremacy, which is actually the result of being forced out. If not forced to be helpless, the three stars plus Durant are not willing to be at the top of the scoring list. Originally, the teams they played for were teams with super duos or even big three as the core, but for various reasons, many times they fell into a situation of fighting alone.
Before the 76ers traded harden, Embiid could only lead the team alone, and Ben Simmons did not play for a second for the trade for psychological reasons.
The Bucks have suffered a number of injuries this season, with Lopez only playing the opener, and George Hill and Connaughton missing many games due to injury. In addition, the Bucks' Big Three have all missed more than 10 games, and this season's time as center can only take over the offense and cut high points more than Antetokounmpo, who has hit a new career high.
The Nets don't need to mention much, Harden is upset and plagued by injuries, Irving refuses to get vaccinated, durant is healthy when he is a father and a mother, averaging 36.6 minutes per game to become a model worker.
The Lakers' introduction of Westbrook did not work well, Davis was knocked down by knee and ankle injuries, and James could only play the fifth position in the small ball to open the crazy scoring mode.
From the current situation, in the final stage of the regular season, Embiid and Antetokounmpo may save their physical strength to prepare for the playoffs, and James is eager to lead the Lakers to retain a playoff seat and dare not restrain the front, and this scoring king battle James may have a slight advantage.
Perhaps Embiid and Antetokounmpo avoided the championship spell of the tennis king and put more energy into the goal of the championship, and the 37-year-old James broke the record of Michael Jordan to become the oldest leading scorer in history, which was the most happy ending.
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