Trey Murphy III Drops 40 Points in Near Upset Against Celtics

Matt Newton | Feb 1, 2025

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Virginia Cavaliers

Have yourself a night, Trey Murphy III. The former UVA basketball star went off for a season-high 40 points and nearly single-handedly willed the New Orleans Pelicans to what would have been a stunning upset over the Boston Celtics.

The Pelicans came up just short, falling to the Celtics 118-116 on Thursday night in New Orleans, but Murphy still had one of the best games of his career and one of the most efficient performances in the NBA this season, dropping 40 points on 15/20 shooting and 8/12 from three-point range to go along with five rebounds, four assists, and one steal.

Trey Murphy III last two games:

32 on 13/17 in a 1pt loss to DAL
40 on 15/20 in a 2pt loss to BOS

The 24-year-old is up to 22.1 PPG on 61.5% TS on the season; the leap is real pic.twitter.com/2yJdPkyBHL
— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) February 1, 2025

With the Pelicans missing their two franchise stars in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram for most of the season, including on this night, Trey Murphy III has taken full advantage of the vacuum and is in the midst of an incredible breakout season, increasing his scoring average by more than seven points per game from 14.8 last season to 22.1 this season. The Pelicans are 12-37 on the season, good for 14th place in the Western Conference, and are strongly considering blowing it all up and starting over, but Murphy is making a strong case as a potential star worth building the franchise around for the future.

Murphy has had games of 35, 34, 32, 32, and now 40 points this season and has also had 19 games with 20 or more points as well. His 40 points on Friday night were his most all season and just one point shy of his career-high, which was a 41-point outing against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 12th, 2023.

Murphy scored those 40 points in a variety of shots, hitting eight threes as is his specialty, but also attacking off the dribble and scoring with mid-range jumpers and at the rim, aspects of his game that he has developed significantly this season. With elite defenders like Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown all taking turns defending Murphy, it didn't matter who was in front of him, Murphy was scoring at will and efficiently as well.

Watch the full highlights from Murphy's 40-point performance in the video below.

On the other side, fellow former UVA basketball star Sam Hauser had nine points, four rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 14 minutes off the bench for the Celtics, who improved to 34-15 to remain in second place in the Eastern Conference standings.

This has been a good month for former Virginia basketball players. Murphy twice scored 32 points plus this 40-point game and averaged nearly 25 points per game in the month of January. De'Andre Hunter matched a career-high with 35 points on January 27th against the Minnesota Timberwolves and then went for 25 points a few nights later against former Wahoo teammate Ty Jerome, who also had 20 points in that same game. Jerome made history on January 24th in Philadelphia, becoming just the 11th NBA player to ever make eight threes in a game without a miss (and second to do so this season, joining Stephen Curry), scoring a career-high 33 points in the process.

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