The Highest-Scoring NBA Game Ever

The highest-scoring game in NBA history was played on December 13, 1983, when the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets 186-184 in triple overtime for a combined 370 points. It stands as one of basketball’s most remarkable box scores, and no game before or since has come within 19 points of it.

Scoring records usually belong to individual players, but the highest-scoring games are team feats, the product of blistering pace, porous defense and, often, extra periods. Here is the full leaderboard of the highest-scoring games in NBA history, the story behind the 1983 classic, and how the modern game measures up. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record: Pistons 186, Nuggets 184

The 1983 game in Denver was an offensive avalanche. Detroit’s Isiah Thomas and John Long combined for 88 points, while Kiki Vandeweghe and Alex English led a Nuggets attack that scored 184 and still lost. Detroit’s 186 points remain the most by a single team in NBA history, and Denver’s 184 is the most ever by a losing team. Both marks were set in the same three-overtime marathon, which is why the game holds a unique place in the record book.

The full leaderboard of highest-scoring games

The table below ranks the highest-scoring games in NBA history by combined points.

Rank	Combined	Result	Overtime	Date
1	370	Pistons 186, Nuggets 184	3 OT	Dec 13, 1983
2	351	Kings 176, Clippers 175	2 OT	Feb 24, 2023
3	337	Spurs 171, Bucks 166	3 OT	Mar 6, 1982
4	320	Warriors 162, Nuggets 158	none	Nov 2, 1990

The top of the list is dominated by multi-overtime games, where extra periods pile on points. The lone exception is the 1990 Warriors-Nuggets game, which reached 320 combined points in regulation, the most ever without overtime.

The modern challenger: Kings 176, Clippers 175

For 40 years the 1983 record looked untouchable, and then the 2023 Kings-Clippers game came surprisingly close. Sacramento and Los Angeles traded baskets through two overtimes before the Kings won 176-175 for 351 combined points, the second-highest total in history and the highest of the three-point era. De’Aaron Fox and Kawhi Leonard led the scoring in a game that felt like a throwback to the fast, high-scoring 1980s.

Single-game scoring brilliance still tends to come from individuals, as our leaderboard of the most points in a single NBA game shows, where Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point night towers over the field.

Why these games happen

High-scoring games share a formula: fast pace, weak defense on at least one side, and often overtime. The Nuggets of the early 1990s, coached by the up-tempo Paul Westhead, appeared in several of the highest-scoring games ever precisely because they ran a system built for speed over defense. Rule changes that opened up the modern game, especially the three-point boom, have kept big totals within reach, even if the 1983 record still stands. The players who anchor these shootouts often headline the most points in NBA history as well.

The scoring giants of past eras also tended to be physically imposing, a theme explored in our list of the tallest NBA players of all time.

Why the record matters

Team scoring records capture a different kind of drama than individual feats: two rosters trading punches until the clock, or the third overtime, finally stops them. The 1983 Pistons-Nuggets game remains the definitive example, a 370-point spectacle that has survived four decades of rule changes and offensive evolution.

The short version: the Detroit Pistons’ 186-184 triple-overtime win over the Denver Nuggets on December 13, 1983 is the highest-scoring NBA game ever, with 370 combined points. The 2023 Kings-Clippers game (351) is second, and as of the 2025 season the record still stands.