Two weeks ago, I posted the best and worst individual game performances from the month of November. It prompted an email question, asking who had the best single game in the last 20 years. I haven't been able to find boxscores dating back quite that far, but the excellent Basketball-Reference.com has individual game stats starting with the 1987-88 season.

I'll post the best individual game performances since 1987-88 later this week. For today, I'll focus on the more dubious efforts. Again, game performances are rated using John Hollinger's Game Scores formula; see that earlier post for more details.

Worst Overall Performances (1987-88 through present)

Player	Date	Min	FG	3P	FT	Reb	Ass	PF	St	TO	Blk	Pts	Score	Outcome
David Wesley	04/12/2001	28	0-13	0-1	0-0	1	1	4	2	4	0	0	-11.7	Win
Delaney Rudd	11/02/1990	9	0-4	0-1	0-0	0	0	5	0	6	0	0	-10.8	Loss
Larry Hughes	12/03/1999	12	0-6	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	6	0	0	-9.9	Win
Darius Miles	02/23/2005	13	0-6	0-0	0-0	2	0	5	0	4	0	0	-9.6	Loss
Tom Gugliotta	11/24/1992	21	0-8	0-1	0-0	5	2	4	1	7	0	0	-9.5	Loss
Elden Campbell	01/03/2001	11	0-6	0-0	0-0	0	0	2	0	4	0	0	-9.0	Loss
Dino Radja	12/26/1993	18	0-14	0-0	0-2	10	0	5	0	1	0	0	-9.0	Loss
Tom Gugliotta	03/13/1996	33	0-13	0-2	0-0	8	2	2	0	4	0	0	-8.9	Loss
Rex Chapman	12/12/1989	30	3-20	0-2	0-2	1	1	3	0	1	0	6	-8.8	Loss
Eric Williams	05/09/2003	20	0-5	0-0	0-0	1	0	5	0	4	0	0	-8.8	Loss

Plenty of bad games here, usually involving terrible shooting, lots of turnovers, and not much else. Only one of these guys, Rex Chapman, got into the scoring column, and it took him 20 shots to get his 6 points.

A few interesting notes:

• Not surprisingly, in 8 out of these 10 performances, the team went on to lose the game as well. David Wesley's Hornets and Larry Hughes' 76ers got the only wins.
• In his first game of the 1990-91 season, Delaney Rudd managed to commit 6 turnovers and 5 fouls in just 9 minutes. It was probably one of the worst games ever by a point guard, turned in by the backup to arguably the best point guard of all time: John Stockton.
• 3 different Hornets players were responsible for 3 of the worst 10 games: Wesley, Elden Campbell, and Chapman.

Typically, the number of points scored is the most significant determinant of the Game Scores formula, which explains why the worst overall performances all involved very little scoring. As a result, it seems appropriate to look for a few additional "worst" performances: by players scoring at least 10, 20, 30, and 40 points.

Worst Performances By Players Scoring 10+ Points (1987-88 through present)

Player	Date	Min	FG	3P	FT	Reb	Ass	PF	St	TO	Blk	Pts	Score	Outcome
Jamal Mashburn	03/08/2002	39	4-18	0-0	2-5	5	0	3	0	6	0	10	-7.9	Loss
Kobe Bryant	02/23/1999	35	5-21	0-6	1-3	5	2	5	0	5	0	11	-5.8	Loss
Allen Iverson	12/21/2002	41	6-28	0-4	1-1	4	2	2	1	4	0	13	-5.0	Loss
Ron Harper	03/10/1991	38	6-25	1-3	0-0	4	5	5	2	8	1	13	-4.7	Loss
Isiah Thomas	11/06/1992	38	4-25	0-9	2-5	4	7	5	2	4	0	10	-4.6	Loss

Worst Performances By Players Scoring 20+ Points (1987-88 through present)

Player	Date	Min	FG	3P	FT	Reb	Ass	PF	St	TO	Blk	Pts	Score	Outcome
Jermaine O'Neal	12/07/2003	41	9-27	0-0	2-2	13	1	5	0	8	2	20	1.9	Loss
Allen Iverson	11/13/2001	43	8-30	0-2	9-12	1	2	4	3	7	0	25	2.1	Win
Mark Aguirre	04/03/1988	37	9-26	0-2	2-2	3	3	3	1	6	0	20	3.0	Loss
Isaiah Rider	02/02/1996	38	6-20	1-6	7-7	3	0	4	0	5	0	20	3.1	Loss
Allan Houston	11/30/2002	39	9-22	0-1	2-2	2	2	5	0	5	0	20	3.2	Win

Worst Performances By Players Scoring 30+ Points (1987-88 through present)

Player	Date	Min	FG	3P	FT	Reb	Ass	PF	St	TO	Blk	Pts	Score	Outcome
Tony Campbell	01/02/1990	48	12-29	0-2	7-9	5	1	4	0	4	0	31	11.3	Loss
Kobe Bryant	05/28/2002	45	11-29	0-2	8-11	5	3	5	1	5	0	30	11.3	Loss
Antawn Jamison	01/21/2001	45	12-25	4-5	3-6	5	1	3	1	8	0	31	11.9	Win
Paul Pierce	03/22/2003	43	8-25	3-5	12-12	6	3	6	2	9	1	31	12.3	Loss
Dale Ellis	11/11/1989	41	11-28	3-7	5-6	1	2	3	2	5	0	30	12.3	Loss

Worst Performances By Players Scoring 40+ Points (1987-88 through present)

Player	Date	Min	FG	3P	FT	Reb	Ass	PF	St	TO	Blk	Pts	Score	Outcome
Kobe Bryant	11/07/2002	46	17-47	0-8	7-7	9	4	3	4	5	0	41	19.0	Loss
Allen Iverson	11/28/2001	46	15-31	3-9	7-7	6	3	3	1	9	0	40	20.2	Loss
Mark Aguirre	01/11/1989	40	16-34	1-5	8-11	8	1	5	1	6	0	41	20.9	Loss
Kobe Bryant	12/25/2004	50	12-30	5-13	13-13	3	6	4	1	9	0	42	21.3	Loss
Vernon Maxwell	04/08/1996	48	15-33	7-17	4-8	3	1	2	0	1	0	41	22.1	Win

These higher-scoring games typically involved poor shooting, lots of turnovers, and minimal contributions in other categories.

Notes:

• The Mamba shows up a whopping 4 times on these lists. with the worst 40+ game and the 2nd-worst 30+ and 10+ games. The Lakers lost all 4 games, most notably last Christmas to Shaq and the Heat.
• These performances seemed to hurt their teams just as much as the overall poor performers did, with 80% of the games ending in losses.