Today in 1971, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored a career-high 55 points in Milwaukee’s 120-104 victory over Boston.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: It's somewhat suprising his career high wasn't higher.

And that's not a slight to the former Lew Alcindor at all. He was just such a dominant player for such a long time, and considering he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, I would've guessed it would have been north of 60-65 points.

In just his third NBA season, in front of just over 10,000 people, he set his career mark as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. Check out the box score here and just look at some of those classic, hall of fame names-Chaney, Cowens, Havlicek, Robertson and Dandridge.

In 20 professional seasons, he never averaged less than double figures, and in 17 of those seasons, he averaged 20+. A lot of his points scored came via the famous "Sky Hook" shot that he created while in just the fifth grade. It's interesting because his proficiency at it made him synonymous with it, which in a lot of ways, limits how he is remembered historically. It's like a game of word association, when I say "Sky Hook", you're going to say "Kareem", to the point where it obscures his dominance in all other areas. In college, the dunk was outlawed from 1967 until 1976 because of his overpowering use of it.

The average NBA fan knows that Abdul-Jabbar is the highest scorer in league history, but did you also know he is also the leader in games played, minutes played, field goals made, field goals attempted, blocked shots, defensive rebounds AND personal fouls? The most amazing stat of all may be that he currently ranks 35th in NBA history in assists! From 1970 to 1989 he missed one all-star game. There are may be a handful of players who have made the impact that Kareem made to the game.

Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships, six regular season MVP awards, two Finals MVP awards, led the league in scoring average twice, rebounding average once, and blocks per game four times.

41 years ago tonight, Kareem scored more points than he ever would in another NBA game.

LeBron and the Heat have won 17 in a row, but they've got their work cut out if they want to break this record.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: The Heat are currently tied for the 12th longest winning streak in NBA history.

The current 17 game streak is tied with the Clippers for longest winning streak this season. But, both are just slightly more than half as long as the all-time best.

33, LA Lakers 1971-'72

The Lakers didn't lose a game for over two months, going a combined 30-0 in November and December. Led by Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Pat Riley and Jim McMillian (and including former Phil Jackson assistant coach Jim Cleamons), the 1971-72 Lakers are arguably the greatest team of all time.

22, Houston Rockets 2007-'08

You may be surprised to know that the second longest winning streak is 22 held by the Houston Rockets in 2007-08. Nobody expected anything out of the Rockets that year and they somehow went off before showing "they are who we thought they were" and losing in the first round of the playoffs. Sadly for T-Mac and Yao, this was the height of their time together.

20, Washington Capitols 1947-'48 thru 1948-'49

The Capitols were part of the Basketball Association of America before being absorbed into the NBA in 1949. Not coincidentally, the team was led by NBA Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach, who led the squad from 1946-'49. The team won 20 games through two seasons.

20, Milwaukee Bucks 1970-'71

Already boasting Lew Alcindor at center, the Bucks acquired Oscar Robertson in a trade and found immediate success. The Bucks set a franchise record for wins that season (66) that still stands and won the NBA title in their third year of existence, the fastest for an expansion team in NBA history. The 20 game win streak was exceeded a year later by the same Lakers team that leads this list. Interestingly, this Bucks squad beat that Lakers team and snapped their NBA record 33 game win streak.

19, LA Lakers 1999-'00

In Phil Jackson's first year as coach, the Lakers started the season by winning 31 of their first 36 games, which included a 16 game winning streak. Later in the season, from February 4th to March 16th, LA won 19 in a row. After that loss, the Shaq and Kobe led squadron won another 11 in a row and earlier in the year also had a seven game streak.  One of the best teams in NBA history, LA won the title by beating the Pacers 4-2.

19, Boston Celtics 2008-'09

The Celtics started out 27-2, including the 19 game win streak, and also had a 10 game streak to their credit. Boston won 62 games but lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs after Kevin Garnett was injured and missed most of the second half of the season. The first round seven game series versus the Bulls is arguably the greatest playoff series in NBA history. 

Just two more wins would put the Heat into the top five. Four more wins would make their streak the second longest in NBA history. 16 more (man, that's a ton of games!) Would tie them with the Lakers for longest streak ever- think they can do it?