ATLANTA — The entire bench rose to its feet as Malachi Flynn’s final bucket of the night, a fastbreak layup, fell through the net.
Fifty points.
It’s a threshold most NBA players are lucky to reach. That’s especially true for players like Flynn, who came to the Detroit Pistons at the Feb. 8 trade deadline looking to keep his career afloat. He has only appeared in 31 games this season, with zero starts. His career average entering the game was 5.2 points.
But on Wednesday night, Flynn had fans in State Farm Arena reacting with shock as each shot fell through the net. He followed a 17-point first half with a 12-point third quarter, helping the Pistons battle back from a 22-point deficit. He saved his best for last, though.
He scored 19 points in the final period, including a 3-pointer and layup in the final minute of the game that brought the Pistons within five points, and finished the night 18 of 25 from the floor. Fifty points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
It might be the most unexpected scoring outburst in NBA history — a player who struggled to crack the rotation at his last stop, seizing the moment on a night the shorthanded Pistons, who are playing out the string. According to ESPN, no player has ever scored 50 points with a career average lower than Flynn’s.
Unfortunately, his stellar night didn’t lead to a win. The Pistons fell to the Hawks, 121-113, as their late rally from a 22-point, third-quarter deficit fell short following a rough first half. Even so, his performance led to a feel-good night for a team that was without Cade Cunningham, and much of its core rotation, with just six games remaining in the season.
“We’re all super happy for him because we all know what he’s had to go through,” said Evan Fournier, who arrived in Detroit with Flynn from the New York Knicks in February. “I don’t want to say we wouldn’t give a (expletive) if it was Cade, but it wouldn’t be the same. The fact that it’s Malachi adds more to the story, I think.”
Other than Flynn’s bucket that secured his 50-point night, the biggest reaction from the Pistons’ bench was with 43 seconds remaining, when he stole an inbounds pass from the Hawks but missed the layup, which would’ve brought the Pistons within five points a little sooner.
“When he missed the layup, we were all like, no!” Fournier said. “It was definitely a couple moments that were good in the game, for sure.”
Flynn, the 29th pick of the 2020 NBA draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Toronto Raptors. But he was traded twice this season — first to the Knicks in January as a piece in the OG Anunoby trade before New York flipped him to Detroit a month later. The 6-foot-1 point guard averaged 15.3 minutes in 31 games with Toronto, but only played in garbage time with the contending Knicks.
He has carved out a steadier role in Detroit, thanks to injuries and the team’s need for a true point guard following a flurry of deadline moves. It’s given him a chance to audition his game as he approaches restricted free agency.
“He just works on his game,” Monty Williams said. “He’s in the gym every morning pretty much an hour before practice, maybe more. He works on his game. You saw it tonight. All those shots that he made are shots that I see him work on every day. It wasn’t just that. He had some timely passes that tell you a lot about him as a player. When he saw guys open, he got off of it, and it just speaks to the phrase we use in our program, that reps remove doubt.
“When you put the work in, you can’t count on having a 50-point game. But you can go into a game because you have stacked solid days and have confidence that when you shoot the ball or make certain reads, when you’re in pick-and-roll coverages, and defensively you get out there and fight, you can have these kinds of nights. We’re proud of Malachi and all of our guys in that regard. They just bring it every single night.”
It was Flynn’s first 50-point game at any level. He had an opportunity to cross the threshold in high school, he said, but his coach subbed him out of the game.
“Right now, it’s a little tougher just because at the end of the day, you want to win to be honest,” he said after the game. “That’s always my main goal, to win. It definitely feels good. The guys congratulated me in the back. That also feels good to take in the moment. I’m sure a couple days from now it’ll feel a little bit better.”
With six games remaining in the season, the 13-win Pistons are trying to build some semblance of momentum to take into the offseason. They’re still three wins shy of the franchise record for fewest in a season. It’s been a tumultuous one, featuring a 28-game losing streak that forced a lot of uncomfortable questions about the trajectory of the rebuild.
Flynn’s night, despite the loss, was a bright moment for a franchise that hasn’t had many this season.
“Just a guy scoring 50 is rare and tough, but in that particular setup, I don’t recall seeing a guy doing that,” Fournier said. “I’m super happy for him. I know he’s been struggling this year, being traded and all that. I’m sure he feels amazing right now and I’m really happy for him.”