As the great Mark Jackson says "It's a make or miss league" and it seems as though today players can't miss. As defensive players are punished significantly now for playing any ounce of physical defense, league scoring has steadily increased. Since 2013-2014 league average for scoring eclipsed 100 points and hasn't dipped since.
With the average league scoring increasing each season, you'd expect the single-game record for most points to be recent, but the opposite proves to be true. Of the top five highest scoring games ever, four take place before 1991. Here is the list of the ten highest scoring NBA games ever.