63 Points in Boston: Jordan's Night of Nights
On April 20, 1986, a 23-year-old Michael Jordan scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs — a single-game postseason record that still stands.
He scored more playoff points than any player in history — and his team still lost. That is how good the Boston Celtics were in 1986. And that is how good Michael Jordan was becoming.
On April 20, 1986, the Chicago Bulls walked into the Boston Garden for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Celtics, one of the great teams in NBA history. The Bulls were heavy underdogs. Their 23-year-old star, Michael Jordan, had missed most of his second season with a broken foot and had returned just in time for the playoffs. Nobody in the building that afternoon knew they were about to witness the greatest individual performance the postseason has ever seen.
From the opening tip, Jordan was unstoppable. He scored from everywhere — driving layups, pull-up jumpers, soaring dunks — through double teams and over Hall of Fame defenders. The Celtics threw everything at him and nothing worked. By the end of regulation he had forced overtime with two clutch free throws; the game went to a second overtime before Boston finally escaped with a 135-131 win.
The final line was staggering: 63 points on 22-of-41 shooting and 19 of 21 free throws — without attempting a single three-pointer. It shattered Elgin Baylor's single-game playoff record of 61 points, set in 1962, and no one has come within six points of it since. Celtics legend Larry Bird, who had 36 points for Boston that night, summed it up afterward: "I think he's God disguised as Michael Jordan." He added that Jordan had put on "one of the greatest shows of all time" — on national television, in the playoffs, in the Boston Garden.
The Celtics swept the three-game series and went on to win the NBA championship. But history remembers the loser of that April afternoon. In 2006 the game was named one of the ten greatest playoff moments in league history, and TV Guide ranked it among the most memorable moments in television history. It was the night Michael Jordan became MICHAEL JORDAN — and within five years he would lead the Bulls to the first of six NBA championships, cementing his claim as the greatest player the game has ever seen. The record, set by a 23-year-old in a losing effort, has now stood for forty years.
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