The Blazers are leading the Rockets 2-0 for a few reasons, one of which is certainly LaMarcus Aldridge's incredible scoring output. LMA has 89 points over two games while shooting a shade under 60 percent.
CHART: LaMarcus Aldridge’s scoring explosion in context
The Blazers’ big man has back-to-back 40-point games in the playoffs. How rare are those?
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
How rare are 40-point games in the NBA playoffs? As this chart shows, pretty rare ... unless your name is Michael Jordan. These are all the players with more than five 40-point playoff games since 1964.
Four of those 13 players are currently active, but it'd be a surprise to see any of them but LeBron James add another to their total. And there's no heavenly way LeBron is catching MJ in this category. Jordan had 38 playoff games with at least 40 points. (Kevin Durant, for what it's worth, has four in his career.)
In all, 48 players have at least two 40-point playoff games since 1964, and 99 have at least one. There are few dicey names on the list -- Anthony Johnson is the most surprising -- so it's good company for LMA.
Putting back-to-back 40-point games together is a bit more rare. Per basketball-reference.com, since 1964 Aldridge is just one of 16 players to do it. If LMA can do it again on Friday he'll be in even more exclusive company as only five players since '64 have had three or more consecutive 40-point playoff games, none since Allen Iverson in the early '00s. Jerry West's achievement in the 1965 Western Finals is most impressive: he scored 40 or more in each of the six games.
