In team sports, a shutout (US) or clean sheet (UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball.
There has never been a basketball team that has scored zero points during a game in the big leagues. While it is possible to score zero points in a basketball game, thankfully, it has not happened in the sport's recorded history.
Summary. The highest-scoring regular-season game in NBA history is the triple-overtime game between the Detroit Pistons and the Denver Nuggets on December 13, 1983. The two teams combined to score 370 points, with the Pistons defeating the Nuggets 186–184.
NBA Lowest-Scoring Record
On November 22, 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the reigning champions of the Minneapolis Lakers for 19 to 18, in the match that would go down in history as the game with the lowest-scoring (37 combined points).
The highest-scoring NBA game ever was on December 13, 1983. In this game, the Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets with a score of 186-184 in a triple-overtime. The total points between both teams were 370. Basketball is an incredibly exciting sport for several reasons.
In theory, a basketball game can have an infinite number of overtime periods. In both the NBA and college basketball, games cannot end in a tie. Therefore, teams will continue to play overtime periods until a winner is determined. One NBA game played in 1951 went into an NBA record six overtime periods.
On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game scoring record by tallying 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks. Not 98 points, not 102, but a nice, round 100 — an imposing record set by a most imposing player.
The Nuggets, a professional basketball franchise who employ 15 professional basketball players, scored five points in an entire quarter. They didn't score a single point until just over three minutes were left. Instead of scoring on offense, Denver decided to do things like this.
End 3rd Quarter: Team Durant ahead going into the fourth, sets target score at 163. At the end of the third quarter, Team Durant has a slight edge over Team LeBron, 139-138. That means the Target score will be set at 163 in the untimed fourth quarter -- 24 points to honor the late Kobe Bryant.
The Minneapolis Lakers have put up the fewest points by a team in a game, with 18 points against the Fort Wayne Pistons on November 22, 1950.
NBA record for fewest points in a quarter is 2 set by the Dallas Mavericks in 1997 and the Golden State Warriors in 2004.
On December 15, 1973, Tennessee defeated Temple University in the finals of the Volunteer Classic basketball tournament in Stokely Athletics Center by the score of 11-6. The game holds the NCAA record for fewest points scored by both teams.
The longest NBA basketball game is 78 minutes and was played between the Indianapolis Olympians and Rochester Royals (both USA), at Edgerton Park Arena, in Rochester, New York, USA, on 6 January 1951. The game was won by the Olympians 75 to 73 in what turned out to be a six-overtime game.
Thompson set the record for the highest-scoring quarter in NBA history with 37 points in the third period of a 2015 game (more on that below). Love nearly matched him in 2016, racking up 34 points in a quarter for the Cavaliers.
Chamberlain has all the numbers to prove he was a complete player, but he owns one of the most shocking statistics that should, alone, push him to the top of the GOAT list. It all happened during the 1961-62 season when Chamberlain averaged 48.5 minutes per game for the year.
Kareem was a better all-around player, but Wilt was better defensively and on the boards. Kareem came thru in the clutch time after time after time. Wilt, not as much. Kareem, by virtue of his six rings and six regular season MVP awards, and his superior performances in the clutch.
Then there is the one and only Wilt Chamberlain, whose most notable in a long list of records was set 60 years ago. On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain — nicknamed the Dipper — scored 100 points in a game for the Philadelphia Warriors against the Knicks in a 169-147 win at Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pa.
When will LeBron pass Kareem? Soon! LeBron trails by 1,440 points, and with 11 games left on the Lakers' schedule, he should end this season between 1,100 and 1,200 points away, depending on how many of those games he plays. LeBron has exceeded 1,440 points—let alone 1,200—in every season of his career except 2020-21.
When the Los Angeles Lakers host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night (10 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN App), the team and the NBA will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lakers' 33-game winning streak in the 1971-72 season, regarded as one of the most unbreakable records in NBA history.
Basketball. In basketball, if the score is tied at the end of regulation play, the teams play multiple five-minute overtime periods until a winner is decided.