[jthig32]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Dirk.effing.Nowitzki. Has anyone EVER score 35+ points while only missing two shots of any kind? Only one turnover? Are we looking at the most efficient game in NBA history? I have a hard time believing this has ever been topped. Goodness gracious what an evening.

Just how special was Dirk Nowitzki’s Game 1 performance Sunday against the Spurs, when in the 100-94 home victory he scored a seemingly effortless 36 points? Well, as DallasBasketball.com checks the archives and the data base searching back almost 20 years, it is the second most “special’’ effort of its kind.
To explain:
The UberMan put up just had the second most points ever scored in an NBA playoff game while shooting better than 85 percent from the field.
Back on May 19, 1992, Terry Porter went 12-of-14 from the floor (on 4-of-5 from the arc and and 13-of-15 from the line) to score 41 points.
And in the last two decades, that’s how good somebody has to be to be better than Dirk was on Sunday.
Nowitzki was 12-of-14 from the floor (not to mention 12-of-12 from the line) on his way to 36 – a commonplace deal now that he’s scored at least 30 points a total of 34 times in 88 career playoff games.
The Spurs tried to guard him with That Bonner Character, which was the epitome of comedy until late in the game, when San Antonio tried 6-5 Keith Bogans on the sure-to-be MVP finalist. At the end, the Spurs literally triple-teamed Dirk on a pair of possessions … but none of it was enough.
“Dirk got the best of whatever we tried to do with him tonight,’’ Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We tried a lot of different things, but he beat them all.”
Nowitzki had another one-of-a-kind night – or, to be precise, a twice-in-two-decades night.

So there you go.