The 2023-24 NBA season has been marked by a seemingly endless string of 50-point performances. Individual scoring prowess was so widespread that December and January featured five separate 50-point games, but after the league began calling fewer fouls and allowing more physical defense in the second half of the season, these explosions have become rare. We only saw five after the All-Star break a season ago, and in that world, it wasn’t clear how quickly we’d see one during the 2024-25 season.
Well, it took less than a week.
Paolo Banchero, the Orlando Magic’s third-year All-Star, just turned 50 for the first time in his young career, finally reaching 51 in a 119-115 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. Most of his scoring came in the first half, in which he had 37 points on 17 shots.
And as impressive as 50 points was, he almost joined an even more exclusive club. Banchero finished the game with 51 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Had he notched a 10th assist, he would have become the eighth member of the 50-point triple-double club alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Luka Doncic, Richie Guerin, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
As it stands, Panchero’s incredible first half was enough to make him just the third player to reach 35 points, five assists and five rebounds in a half, joining Harden and Donovan Mitchell. He also tied Tracy McGrady for the Magic’s highest-scoring half during the play-by-play era (dating back to the 1996-97 season).
Banchero is now the 11th youngest player in NBA history to reach 50 points at age 21 years and 351 days and the youngest player to do so since Devin Booker scored 70 at age 20 in 2017. In addition to This makes Banchero the second youngest player to reach 50 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a game behind LeBron James, who did it when he was 20 years old.
The offense, as a whole, has declined this season as it did late last year. The league average offensive rating entering Monday was 112.2, down more than three points from last season’s record 115.3. Banchero doesn’t exactly play an offensive juggernaut either. His Magic ranked 22nd in offense last season, and his co-star in Orlando, Franz Wagner, missed most of that game due to illness. None of that mattered to Banchero, who was still capable of having the biggest game of the season so far and securing a big win for the Magic against another Eastern Conference playoff team.