Hey, a career-high for J.J. Redick! That’s really cool. Except for, you know, how it doesn’t even count. “B-b-but DTB of course it counts, the o-o-official box score says 40!” you wail disbelievingly at your computer screen or phone. “W-w-w-what standing do you have to challenge official NBA s-s-s-statkeeping?” But in your heart you know you have seen the same things that I have seen, and they are things that cannot be ignored despie your eagerness to celebrate Redick’s first, and perhaps final, forty-point game:
-It was an overtime game so it’s not fair to players who only had 48 minutes to score their points. What if Wilt scored 100 in eighteen overtimes? Huh? Never thought about THAT did you smart guy? It’s a simple fact, overtime games don’t count towards any total-based record.
-One of Redick’s baskets was an own-goal by either Howard or Jones. What if Wilt scored 100 because his opponents couldn’t stop screwing up rebounds? Obvs it wouldn’t count and Kobe’s 81 would be the record.
-There were a lot of intentional fouls at the end. Anybody could score 100 if they were getting fouled every three seconds of game time.
-James Harden was defending Redick for much of the game. If Wilt had been defended by a used-up roll of wrapping paper for the entirety of his 100-point game, nobody would take it seriously.
So, there you have it. J.J. Redick’s career-high forty-point performance doesn’t count.