This was a meeting of two of the top-seven scorers in NBA history in Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James. Both have surpassed the 30,000-point plateau, making it only the second unique pairing of two members of the 30K club in nearly 30 years. It was the fifth-most combined points of any two players in a game in NBA history, trailing only Karl Malone’s final four face-offs with Michael Jordan in the early-2000s. So outside of MJ and the Mailman, this was the highest-scoring matchup of all-time. Pretty cool to think about.
The Cavs scored just 18 points in the first quarter, which ties for their second-lowest output in the opening frame all season.