Forty years ago today, Feb. 25, 1977, Pete Maravich played one of the most spectacular games in New Orleans basketball history. “The Pistol” scored 68 points in a 124-107 win
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Maravich victimized five different Knicks guards: Walt Frazier; Butch Beard; Earl Monroe; Dean Meminger; and Tickey Burden. Frazier was known as one of the best defenders in the NBA but Maravich averaged 35 points a game in his three previous matchups with Frazier. “We tried everything humanly possible to stop him,” Knicks coach Red Holtzman told The Times-Picayune that night. “We double-teamed him, we tried to have guys help out. We tried trapping him. He was just so darned hot, we couldn’t handle him.”
Maravich made 26 of 43 field goals and 16 of 18 free throws en route to his record-setting night. And this was before the 3-point shot had been instituted. At the time, it was the seventh highest scoring output in NBA history. It set the benchmark for the most points ever scored by a guard, eclipsing Jerry West's mark of 63 in 1962. The mark still ranks fourth among guards all-time and 12th overall in NBA history.
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Bob McAdoo, the Knicks starting center and a three-time NBA scoring champion, said, “He was shooting from everywhere: every corner of the court, fast breaks, set plays. The man beat us by himself."
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Knicks guard Earl Monroe: “There was no way we could stop him. The Pistol was hot tonight, he was really going off. The thing that came to mind was that he was hitting shots from everywhere. Unconscionable shots”