{"id":406590,"date":"2025-11-26T18:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406590\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:47:19","slug":"which-nba-team-has-scored-the-most-points-in-a-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406590\/","title":{"rendered":"Which NBA team has scored the most points in a quarter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine falling short despite having a record-setting offensive performance. That was the case for the Buffalo Braves against the Boston Celtics<\/a> on Oct. 20, 1972.<\/p>\n

Coming off a loss to the New York Knicks<\/a> in the Eastern Conference finals, Red Auerbach’s Celtics entered the 1972-73 campaign looking to capture their first NBA championship in four seasons. Boston won its first four games, including road matchups against the Detroit Pistons<\/a>, Chicago Bulls<\/a> and Atlanta Hawks<\/a> and an eight-point home win over the rival Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Celtics pounced on the visiting Braves in their fifth game, owning a commanding 103-60 lead at the end of the third quarter. Led by Randy Smith’s game-high 29 points off the bench, Buffalo battled back, scoring 58 points in the final frame. It remains the most by a team in a single quarter in NBA history.<\/p>\n

The Braves’ record-setting offensive output was not enough to overcome the Celtics’ lead, as Boston held on for a 126-118 victory. The Celtics went on to win their first 10 games and finished the regular season with the league’s best record at 68-14 before losing to the Knicks in the East finals for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

More recently, in April 2023 the Golden State Warriors<\/a> racked up 55 points in their first quarter vs. the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>. The Warriors went on to win the matchup 157-101<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Check out NBA teams with the most points in a single quarter below:<\/p>\n

58 – Buffalo Braves in fourth quarter at Boston Celtics on Oct. 20, 1972<\/p>\n

57 – Phoenix Suns<\/a> in second quarter vs. Denver Nuggets<\/a> on Nov. 10, 1990<\/p>\n

57 – Golden State Warriors<\/a> in third quarter vs. Sacramento Kings<\/a> on March 4, 1989<\/p>\n

55 – Golden State Warriors in first quarter at Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> on April 9, 2023<\/p>\n

55 – Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> in third quarter vs. New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> on April 9, 2022<\/p>\n

Check out the ESPN NBA hub page<\/a> for standings<\/a>, scores<\/a>, stats<\/a>, schedules<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine falling short despite having a record-setting offensive performance. That was the case for the Buffalo Braves against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":406591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[191780,5723,3140,3135,1260,1721,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-406590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-191780","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-phoenix-suns","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115617493575100218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}