On Saturday, the NBA's two leading scorers took turns boosting their impressive averages.
First, Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal dropped 50 points on 19-of-31 shooting in regulation against the Indiana Pacers before a hamstring "tweak" forced him to the sidelines for overtime as Russell Westbrook steered Washington to victory.
Hours later, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors answered with 49 points in three quarters, playing just 29 minutes as the Warriors crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 136-97. The outburst was enough to keep Curry ahead in one of the tightest scoring races in recent memory.
With four games left for both of their teams, Curry is averaging 31.9 PPG to Beal's 31.4. Who will win this competition? Let's take a look at that and the history of scoring races.
Past scoring races
It's been several seasons since we've seen a legitimate battle for the NBA's scoring title. The last two seasons, James Harden locked it up early, outscoring Beal by 3.8 PPG in 2019-20 and Paul George by 8.1 in 2018-19 -- the third-largest advantage in league history, trailing only two dominant Wilt Chamberlain seasons in 1961-62 (when his record 50.4 PPG were an incredible 18.8 more than the next qualified competitor) and 1962-63 (a 10.8 PPG edge).
The last time the scoring race was this close was 2012-13, when three-time defending champion Kevin Durant sat out the season finale with the Thunder's playoff position secured. Durant would have needed 70 points in that game to surpass Carmelo Anthony, then with the New York Knicks.
Of course, similar swings on the season's final day have happened. The NBA's most famous scoring race came in 1977-78. Two former ABA stars, George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs and David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets, staged a long-distance duel for the ages on April 9, 1978.
Playing first in Detroit, Thompson set a new league record with 32 points in the first quarter and finished with 73 to push his scoring average to 27.15 PPG. Over the subsequent four-plus decades, only Kobe Bryant's 81-point game has surpassed Thompson's total.
Gervin entered the Spurs' game in New Orleans that day against the Jazz knowing the number he needed to hit: 58 points. He went for 33 in the second quarter alone, breaking the record Thompson had just set, and finished with 63 points in just 33 minutes to finish at 27.22 PPG and lead the league.
A San Antonio star again emerged victorious in the 1994 scoring race, when center David Robinson entered the final day of the season averaging 29.27 PPG, just behind Shaquille O'Neal's 29.31. The Spurs made it their mission for Robinson to win the scoring race. He scored 71 points in the team's finale -- third most since the merger behind Bryant and Thompson and enough to finish 0.4 PPG ahead of O'Neal.
Assessing the Beal-Curry race
For much of the season, Beal looked certain to lead the league in scoring. When Curry was sidelined by a tailbone contusion suffered on March 17, he was averaging 29.0 PPG -- more than three fewer than Beal's average of 32.5 PPG through March 18. Since then, Beal's scoring has tailed off a bit as a healthy Westbrook has carried a larger share of the Wizards' offense. Over Beal's last 22 games, he has averaged only 29.6 PPG.
As has been well-documented, Curry enjoyed a historic month of April, setting an NBA record with 96 3-pointers and averaging more than a point per minute (37.3 PPG in 35.2 MPG). And after Saturday, he's actually increased his average in May to 38.2 PPG in just 32.7 minutes.
The torrid stretch has allowed Curry to close ground in a hurry. Having previously led Beal in scoring average only for the three days following his 62-point outburst against the Portland Trail Blazers in early January, Curry caught Beal with his 49-point game at Philadelphia on April 19. Beal reclaimed the lead with 45 points a week later but he hasn't led Curry since a 19-point game on April 30.
At this point, Beal seems to be battling uphill on multiple fronts. First, there's the important matter of his health. After Saturday's game, he told reporters he felt tightness in his left hamstring after twisting his ankle at the start of the second half. He was diagnosed Monday with a left hamstring strain and will sit out the Wizards' next two games.
Washington will surely make every effort to have Beal available for the final two games of the season (hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday and Charlotte Hornets on Sunday) with play-in tournament positioning at stake. The Wizards are currently a game behind the Hornets for eighth in the East, which would mean a chance at landing the No. 7 seed and the ability to host the battle for No. 8. Even after Saturday's head-to-head loss, the Pacers are still lurking a half-game behind Washington in ninth.
If Beal does play, the hamstring strain could limit his effectiveness, though it didn't stop Beal from scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter Saturday.
Meanwhile, there appears to be no end in sight for Curry's dominant run, much of which has come since No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman was lost to a season-ending knee injury. While Curry started to play well with Wiseman in the lineup, the difference in his production with Wiseman not on the court has been dramatic.
According to NBA Advanced Stats, Curry averaged 25.9 points per 36 minutes this season when playing alongside the rookie. With Wiseman on the bench, that jumps to 36.6 points per 36 minutes.
The Warriors, too, have much to play for this week in terms of the play-in tournament. Saturday's win kept them a half-game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies for eighth in the West. The race could come down to the final day of the season, when Golden State hosts Memphis with the season series and head-to-head tiebreaker at stake.
If we're lucky, the scoring race will also be in play Sunday. Curry now looks like the heavy favorite to lead the NBA in scoring, but there's more work to be done.