66 years ago today: Elgin Baylor scores an NBA-record 71 points at Madison Square Garden

Sixty-six years ago today, on Tuesday, November 15, 1960, Elgin Baylor scored 71 points for the Los Angeles Lakers in a 123-108 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. No player had ever scored 70 in an NBA game before that night.

Baylor also grabbed 25 rebounds. Two of the most famous single-game numbers in league history, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 and Kobe Bryant’s 81, came later. In 1960, the 71 was the summit.

Breaking his own record

Baylor was in his third season and his first in Los Angeles. The Lakers had moved west from Minneapolis that summer, hired Fred Schaus as coach and drafted Jerry West with the second pick. The team came into the night at 4-7 and badly needed a reason for its new city to pay attention.

Baylor already owned the single-game scoring record. On November 8, 1959, he scored 64 points against the Boston Celtics in Minneapolis, passing the 63 Joe Fulks had scored for the Philadelphia Warriors in 1949. A year and a week later, he raised his own mark by seven.

The box score

Baylor played 45 minutes. He made 28 of 48 shots from the field and 15 free throws, and the 25 rebounds were nearly as many as the next three Lakers combined. Rudy LaRusso added 15 points, and West, a rookie, scored 10.

The Lakers led 63-58 at halftime and pulled away in the third quarter, holding the Knicks to 15 points. Willie Naulls kept New York close for a while with 35 points and 14 rebounds, and Kenny Sears had 17, but the Knicks shot .360 as a team.

• Final: Los Angeles Lakers 123, New York Knicks 108
• By quarter: Los Angeles 35-28-27-33, New York 33-25-15-35
• Elgin Baylor: 45 minutes, 71 points, 28-of-48 shooting, 15 free throws, 25 rebounds
• Willie Naulls: 42 minutes, 35 points, 14 rebounds
• Records after the game: Lakers 5-7, Knicks 2-10

On November 15, 1960, Elgin Baylor scored a then-NBA record 71 points in 45 minutes. He made 28 of 48 field goals and grabbed 25 REB in the Lakers win. pic.twitter.com/0Z5nZE2O2q

— NBA (@NBA) March 23, 2021

A record that lasted a year

The 71 stood for just over a year. Chamberlain scored 78 for the Philadelphia Warriors in a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers on December 8, 1961, then scored 100 against the Knicks on March 2, 1962. Chamberlain went on to top 70 points six times in all.

Baylor’s mark lasted much longer inside his own franchise. It remained the Lakers’ single-game record for more than 45 years, until Bryant scored 81 against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006.

Seventy-one is still one of the rarest totals in the game. Only three other players have scored exactly 71 in a regular-season game: David Robinson for San Antonio on the last day of the 1993-94 season, Donovan Mitchell for Cleveland in an overtime win over Chicago on January 2, 2023, and Damian Lillard for Portland against Houston on February 26, 2023.

The season around it

Baylor finished 1960-61 averaging 34.8 points and 19.8 rebounds, second in the league in scoring behind Chamberlain. The Lakers went 36-43, beat the Detroit Pistons in the first round and took the St. Louis Hawks to seven games in the Western Division finals. The Knicks finished 21-58, last in the East.

The next season, Baylor was called to active duty in the Army Reserve and could play only on weekend passes. He still averaged 38.3 points in 48 games, then scored 61 in Game 5 of the 1962 Finals against Boston, a Finals record that still stands.

Baylor never won a title as a player, and knee injuries took much of his explosiveness in his last seasons. But the night at the Garden in 1960 showed what he was at his peak: a 6-foot-5 forward who could hang in the air, score from anywhere and rebound like a center. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977 and died on March 22, 2021, at 86.