Giannis Antetokounmpo joins exclusive club after latest dominant performance

With 38 points in the Bucks’ 117-102 win over Cleveland Friday night in Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo has now scored 35 or more points in three straight games. It is the second time he has done that in his career.

Giannis became the second Bucks player to have 35 or more points in three straight games multiple times in a career. Over his six-year career in Milwaukee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 11 streaks where he had 35-plus points in three or more games. Jabbar holds the team record with 35-plusa points in five consecutive games; he did it twice with the Bucks.

Giannis had 37 points on Nov. 21 versus Portland and then followed that with 36 points in the Nov. 23 loss to Chicago. He has tallied 35 or more points in five of the 15 games he’s played this season.

He will go for No. 4 in the streak on Sunday at Fiserv Forum against Dallas. If he gets more than 35 in that game, he will try to tie Kareem’s record on Wednesday Nov.30 in a road contest against the Knicks.

Jabbar and Giannis are two of the three Bucks’ players to score 35-plus points in three straight games. Sharp-shooter Flynn Robinson, “The Electric Eye,” had a streak of three games with 35-plus points in February, 1969 of the 1968-69 campaign. That was the Bucks’ first year in the NBA.

If Giannis should continue this streak of 35-point games, he has a long way to go to challenge the NBA record. Wilt Chamberlain has the first-, second- and third-longest streaks in league history with 35-plus points. He had a 33-game, 23-game and 20-game streak with 35-plus points in his career.

NBA’s longest streaks of 35-plus points

Here is the longest streak of consecutive games with 35-plus points in league history:

• 33-Wilt Chamberlain
• 23-Wilt Chamberlain
• 20-Wilt Chamberlain
• 13-Kobe Bryant
• 11-James Harden
• 10-James Harden, Michael Jordan
• 9-LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor

Sixty-nine times in NBA history a player had a streak of five games or more with 35-plus points. It was done by 23 different players. Chamberlain tops this list; he had five-game streaks of 35-plus points 20 times in his career. 

The other 22 members of this list with the number of times they had five-game (or longer) streaks of 35-plus points in their careers: 

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2)
• Carmelo Anthony (1)
• Tiny Archibald (3)
• Rick Barry (2)
• Elgin Baylor (6)
• Kobe Bryant (6)
• DeMar DeRozan (1)
• Paul George (1)
• George Gervin (2)
• James Harden (3)
• Allen Iverson (1)
• LeBron James (2)
• Nikola Jokic (1)
• Michael Jordan (4)
• Bernard King (1)
• Damian Lillard (1)
• Karl Malone (2)
• George Mikan (1)
• Shaquille O’Neal (1)
• Oscar Robertson (6)
• Jack Twyman (1)
• Dominique Wilkins (1)