TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma-born basketball star set a Detroit Pistons franchise record on Wednesday night with a 50-point performance off the bench.
Malachi Flynn, who played at Bellarmine Prep before spending two seasons at Washington State University and two seasons at San Diego State University, finished with 50 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals in a 121-113 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
“Right now, it's tough because at the end of the day, you want to win,” Flynn said. “But it does feel good to kind of take in the moment. I’m sure a couple of days from now, it will feel really good.”
It is one of the more surprising 50-point performances in recent NBA history. Flynn has played on three teams this season after being traded from the Toronto Raptors to the New York Knicks in December and then again moved from New York to the Pistons in February.
Flynn far surpassed his previous NBA career-high of 27 points, as he already had 31 by the end of the third quarter. Flynn also has the lowest career scoring average (5.2 points) of any player to ever put up 50 points in an NBA game, per ESPN Stats and Info.
He is not the first NBA player to score 50 points off the bench or even the first player from the Seattle area to do so. Jamal Crawford of Rainier Beach High School had four 50-point games in his NBA career, including one in 2019 for the Phoenix Suns where he scored 51 off the bench in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
