After a decisive Game 5 at 41 points against the Bucks in the first round, Reggie Miller had again passed the 40-point mark in the first game of the 2000 conference semi-final against the Sixers.
Except that this time, the Pacers star was perfectly assisted by Jalen Rose. On May 6, 2000, the two Indiana players will score 40 points each, with magnificent percentages: 11/18 for Reggie Miller, 16/23 for Jalen Rose. That is 80 points scored at 65% shooting success!
Inevitably, Allen Iverson and his band were overwhelmed, losing 108-91. Larry Brown, the Philadelphia coach, could not what to see the damage provoked by the opposing tandem.
“Reggie and Jalen put in incredible performances. I don’t know how else to put it, they were phenomenal. Jalen had good shots, Reggie big shots. The latter had already been huge in Games 3 and 5 against Milwaukee. »
This performance by the future finalist duo, beaten by the Lakers in the Finals, made history. Indeed, at the time, this tandem was only the fourth in history to finish with at least 40 points each in a playoff game. Before them, we found: Elgin Baylor (45 points) and Jerry West (41) in 1962, Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (42) and Hakeem Olajuwon (41) in 1988 then still Hakeem Olajuwon (40) but with Clyde Drexler (41 ) in 1995.
For twenty years, two other duos have joined this very closed club: LeBron James and Kyrie Irving (41 each) during the 2016 Finals as well as Anthony Davis (47 points) and Jrue Holiday (41 points) in 2018.
That night, Devin Booker (47 points) and Kevin Durant (39 points) were however not far from joining them…
