James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving will look to break some franchise records.
The Brooklyn Nets are going for broke this season, trading a haul of draft picks and bench players to pair James Harden with Kevin Durant and, eventually, Kyrie Irving. If Harden’s first game as a Net was any indication of what is to follow, several franchise offensive records could fall.
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With all three of these players capable of scoring 50 points if required to, they could rewrite the Nets’ record books by shattering the previous marks for most points scored in one game by one player.
These are the three best individual scoring performances in Nets history, which their Big Three should be looking to top.
3. Ray Williams, 4/17/1982 vs. Pistons, 52 points
In what would be the final game of the season against Isaiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, and the Pistons, the late Williams, who had his moments with both the Knicks and the Nets, got 52 points the hard way, making 21 of his 34 shots from the field while making just one three-point attempt. The 21 made shots in a single game remain a Nets record to this day, and it’ll be hard to see that record falling anytime soon, given how much the modern game revolves around the three-point line and foul line.
While Mike Newlin also scored 52 points in a 1979 win against the Boston Celtics, he needed overtime to help him accomplish that feat, while Williams put up 52 in a game that saw New Jersey put up 147 points against one of the toughest defenses of that era, giving him a slight edge over Newlin when the degree of difficulty is factored in.
Williams, who remained a key part of a Nets team that made a playoff run in ’82, didn’t get much of a chance to inscribe his name in the Nets lexicon, as he ended up with the then-Kansas City Kings after his record-setting performance before making a return to the Knicks. While his offensive production was siphoned away after his trip to Kansas City, Williams set a franchise record that stood for 30 years, ensuring that his name will always be fondly remembered in the annals of Nets lore.