Fifty points in the NBA still makes headlines, even in a league where 30 barely bats an eyelid.
Scoring has never been easier. Pace is up, the three-point shot is part of the game’s fabric, and 40-point nights arrive most weeks. Yet a 50-piece remains rare enough to grab attention — and only a handful of players have made it a real habit.
These are the seven players who have done it most — a mix of unstoppable bigs, high-flying wings and pure shooters, counting down to the one name nobody will ever catch.
The seven most prolific 50-point scorers the NBA has seen
7. Stephen Curry — 15 games
Curry rewired how the NBA thinks about the three-point shot, and his 50-point nights were always special. Most arrived in a blur of threes from well beyond the arc.
His most famous may be the 2021 duel in Portland when he poured in 62, a career high that reminded everyone who the greatest shooter ever undoubtedly is.
6. Damian Lillard — 15 games
Level with Curry on 15, Lillard built his reputation on the biggest shots at the biggest moments.
He dropped 50 or more repeatedly in Portland, none bigger than the 50 he hung on Oklahoma City in 2019 before waving goodbye with a 37-foot series-winner at the buzzer — one of the defining playoff shots of the era.
5. Elgin Baylor — 17 games
Long before the modern game, Baylor was scoring in ways the league had never seen. The Lakers forward played above the rim when few others could, and his 17 fifty-point outings include a 71-point night against New York in 1960.
He remains the bridge between basketball’s early days and the explosive scorers who followed.
4. James Harden — 25 games
Harden reached 25 in November 2025 with a 55-point eruption against Charlotte for the Clippers.
His scoring blends step-back threes, relentless free-throw drawing and playmaking, a style that made him the engine of some of the highest-scoring offenses of the last decade. At 25 and still active, he is the name here most likely to keep climbing.
3. Kobe Bryant — 25 games
Tied with Harden on 25, Bryant delivered the most famous single-game explosion of the modern era — 81 points against Toronto in 2006, second only to Wilt’s 100.
Kobe got to 50 with ease sometimes, stringing together four in a row in one 2007 stretch. Few players ever combined volume and cold-blooded shot-making like he did.
2. Michael Jordan — 31 games
Jordan sits second with 31. He hit 50-plus in the regular season and the playoffs, on both the Bulls and late in his career with Washington.
The signature moment came in the 1986 postseason, when he dropped 63 on the Boston Celtics in a double-overtime playoff loss — a performance Larry Bird described as God disguised as a basketball player.
1. Wilt Chamberlain — 118 games
Then there is Chamberlain, whose number does not make sense. He recorded 118 games of 50 or more, nearly four times Jordan’s total, and his 100-point game against New York in 1962 still tops the record book more than six decades on.
In one season alone he averaged more than 50 a night. It is the safest record in sports — no one will come close.
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