One of the best NBA performances of this year came in a losing effort Saturday. In the Charlotte Hornets’ 122-119 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Hornets’ guard Kemba Walker put up 60 points and outscored all of his teammates combined. And that also marked a personal high for him and the highest total any player has posted so far this season (beating Klay Thompson’s 52 Oct. 30), as Sports Illustrated‘s Ben Golliver noted:
Kemba Walker finishes w/ 60 points in OT loss to Sixers.
— 2018-19 NBA season high (52, Thompson)
— Hornets franchise-record (52, Walker)
— Career-high (52)
— Last player w/ more points in NBA game: Devin Booker w/ 70 in March 2017.
— Outscored all of his teammates combined. pic.twitter.com/BX0501v3kw— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) November 18, 2018
However, the night didn’t end the way Walker would have hoped, and it was another star who wound up sealing things for the Sixers. Jimmy Butler, who Philadelphia acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves last week, continued his streak of strong play with his new team, blocking Walker twice in overtime. Here’s the first one:
ALL BALL@JimmyButler | #HereTheyCome https://t.co/HxRQkpOvoq
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 18, 2018
The second block was even more important. It came with 11 seconds left, and Butler not only made the block, he made an amazing play to keep the ball in bounds and get it to teammate Wilson Chandler:
Sixers’ head coach Brett Brown then called a timeout, and Philadelphia inbounded the ball to Butler. Butler then just stared down defender Dwayne Bacon before launching a pull-up three inside the final two seconds, and he nailed it to win the game for the Sixers.
That’s quite the performance in overtime from Butler (who had 15 points, four rebounds and three assists overall), and it even somewhat overshadowed what Walker did, despite Walker pouring in four times the points. This was still a great showing from Walker, but Butler helped the Sixers survive it and come out with a win.
