Jeff Green’s Career-High 43 on 03-18-13

Brian Windhorst for ESPN wrote 27 straight wins: The most dominant stretch of LeBron James’ career, revisiting the 27-game winning streak of the 2012-13 Miami Heat. I followed the NBA closely that year and for that reason remembered a specific game discussed in the article between the Heat and the Boston Celtics (which was my favorite team) on March 18, 2023. Mr. Windhorst noted that the Celtics were missing Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo, but Jeff Green picked up the slack for the injury-depleted Celtics: > In their absence, Jeff Green had one of the best games of his career, scoring 43 points. I remember this game not for the Heat’s winning streak, but instead for Jeff Green’s 43-point explosion. I will go one step further than Mr. Windhorst and opine that this game was almost certainly Mr. Green’s best performance in his now 17-year NBA career (he is currently a member of the Houston Rockets). His career-high 43 points came on very efficient shooting splits (14-21 from the floor, 5-7 from three, and 10-13 from the free throw line) and he added 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 2 steals. He turned the ball over just twice and posted a career-best game score of 38.6. Interestingly, while I would have remembered the “Jeff Green” game and the fact the Celtics lost if I had to answer without the benefit of the article, I did not recall that the game occurred toward the end of Miami’s historic winning streak.