Kobe Bryant Has 72 Points!

[Stormtracker TF]

4 minutes to go against Toronto. He'll probably break 80. This guy is unstoppable.

[Stormtracker TF]

He finished with an incredible 81 points!!!! Absolutely crazy.

[D.J.]

He finished with an incredible 81 points!!!! Absolutely crazy.


Perhaps Wilt's record is in jeopardy.

[TVFactFan]

Perhaps Wilt's record is in jeopardy.


There is no video Footage of wilt scoring a 100 pts so I will always put Kobes 81 as the best in NBA history. Plus Wilt played against everyone who was under 6 ft.

[Stormtracker TF]

There is no video Footage of wilt scoring a 100 pts so I will always put Kobes 81 as the best in NBA history. Plus Wilt played against everyone who was under 6 ft.
Kobe could probably score 200 points against those guys.

[vashti1999]

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22 (Ticker) -- Often compared to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant entered the rarefied realm of Wilt Chamberlain.

Bryant scored a mind-boggling 81 points - the second-highest total in NBA history - as the Los Angeles Lakers posted a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

It was the NBA's greatest individual offensive performance aside from Chamberlain's landmark 100-point game against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. That figure once was considered unapproachable, but Bryant is raising the possibility.

After scoring 26 points in the first half, Bryant exploded for 55 after the break - four shy of Chamberlain's record for points in a half. He outscored the Raptors by 14 points after halftime.

Bryant made 28-of-46 shots - including 7-of-13 3-pointers - and 18-of-20 free throws. He shattered his previous career high of 62 points set vs. Dallas in just three quarters on December 20.

With just under five minutes remaining and the Lakers leading, 108-96, Bryant knocked down a 3-pointer to join Chamberlain, former Laker Elgin Baylor, David Thompson and David Robinson in the 70-point club - a threshold Jordan never reached.

Bryant drilled a short jumper on the ensuing possession to break Baylor's club record of 71 points against the Knicks on November 15, 1960.

After making a layup with 3:26 remaining to reach 74 points, Bryant scored his last seven from the free-throw line. He sank a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left to complete his magical performance and exited to a huge ovation with 4.2 seconds to go.

Smush Parker added 13 points and Lamar Odom added 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Lakers, who have won seven of their last 10.


K. Bryant
41:56 minutes
28-46 FG
7-13 3P FG
18-20 FT

1st quarter: 14 points
2nd quarter: 12 points (total: 26)
3rd quarter: 27 points (total: 53)
4th quarter: 28 points (total: 81)

[Dutabi84]

Holy ****! What's with this guy? He's looking a whole lot like you-know-who lately.

[Stormtracker TF]

Something funny I just remembered, the night before the game I was looking at the Raptors site and there was a poll asking what the Raptors would have to do to win against Los Angeles, and the majority said they would have to contain Kobe.

So much for that.

[Dumballa]

:eek: Absolutely Nuts!:eek:
I never thought I would see this in my lifetime . . .
I want that game. I need ta have that sh*t in my archive . . .
Anyone happen ta have a copy? I am going ta right ta tha Lakers and ask for a tape of that game.

[vashti1999]

Maybe since it became a special event, there could be a rebroadcast on NBA-TV. I would think that they would show it there eventually. I hope so.

[TVFactFan]

Maybe since it became a special event, there could be a rebroadcast on NBA-TV. I would think that they would show it there eventually. I hope so.


I would only be interested if the game was close and he scored 81. That game was out of reach and i really don't have a interest in someone just jacking up shot after shot

[Brian Damage]

No wonder nobody wants to play with Kobe. He'll never win another championship playing like that.

[vashti1999]

I'm surprised Phil let him go off like that

[dlemond]

How long until Iverson tops his (own) career high game (60)?

You gotta see this coming.

[Bobby F.]

He gets 81 and the rest of the team scores 41. Way to pass the ball and get your teammates involved Kobe.

[gilligan fanatic]

I am not big in basketball (I can't play at all and I don't watch it) but that is amazing.

[Dutabi84]

I'm not going to fault Kobe for scoring 81 points. They were down double digits in the first half -- at home against the Raptors, until he literally took over the game in the 2nd half. If they can't stop him, why not try to win the game?

[isiahthomas]

Kobe is a ballhog and he shouldn't have scored that many points. He does need to pass the ball more. He's not playing team ball at all. But then again when you look at his teammates, i don't blame him for scoring as much as he's been doing. His teammates suck except for Lamar Odom. Lamar should be scoring a whole lot more than he does.

[TVFactFan]

He gets 81 and the rest of the team scores 41. Way to pass the ball and get your teammates involved Kobe.


Well in Defense of Kobe, his teammates did nothing in the first half and the Lakers were losing by 20. So in the second half, the Kobester had to take over-lol

[Fleet]

Here's a portion of an interesting article about Kobe's 81-point game:
(From today's Daily News, dailynews.com)

[Fleet]

Here is a list printed in today's Los Angeles Times
At list of NBA players who have scored 60 points or higher in a game:
Part 1...

[Fleet]

Part Two...

[Tweety]

There is no video Footage of wilt scoring a 100 pts so I will always put Kobes 81 as the best in NBA history. Plus Wilt played against everyone who was under 6 ft.


Darrel Imhoff, the New York Knicks' center who "guarded" the 7'1" Chamberlain in the 100 point game, was 6-foot-11... a whopping 2 inches shorter than Wilt.

There were no under-six-foot players in that game...the Knicks who took part in that game ranged in size from 6'2" (Al Butler, G) to 6'11" (Darrell Imhoff,C).

There were a lot more under-six-footers in the 80s, 90s (and maybe today, but I don't keep up much with rosters any more) than there were in the 60s...back then, players under 6 ft wouldn't even get a look from teams... there's a reason Nate Archibald, at 6 foot 1, was nicknamed "Tiny".

The first prominent under-six-foot players were probably Spud Webb and Michael Adams (Webb, of course, is remembered for winning the slam dunk contest in the mid/late 1980s..what was he, about 5'6 or so? He might have even been 5'3... And Adams is remembered as a great 3 point shooter, who made the All Star team at least once, as a member of the Denver Nuggets). I'm not sure there were any prominent players before them that were under 6 ft, but I could easily be forgetting someone obvious). Mugsy Bogues was around for quite a while as well, for some reason teams thought they could win with him...

Including Kobe's game, there have been a total of 56 games in NBA history in which a player has scored 60 or more points. Wilt did it 32 times, more than everyone else in the history of the league combined (24), even though he retired over 30 years ago. He also did it 27 of the first 32 times it was done.
Heck, even 15 or 20 years after he retired, he still had more 50 point games than everyone else combined...

Most centers from the 60s and early 70s (Wilt and the guys he played against, such as, Russell, Reed, Unseld, Hayes, Thurmond, Cowens, Bellamy, Abdul-Jabbar) would totally chew Ben Wallace up and spit him out...not to mention what they'd do to Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Eddy Curry...


Interesting how some sportswriters kind of criticized Kobe/Phil for sitting out the 4th Qtr last month after scoring 62 in the first 3 qtrs.... "oh yeah, they should have played him, maybe he could've had 80!"...and in this game, he completely took over after the Lakers trailed 63-49 at halftime and 71-53 in the third quarter (after which Bryant scored 51 points)...and he still gets criticized for being a gunner... what, are they supposed to rely on Lamar Odom to win these games for them? Kobe HAD to take over that game.

Of course, it doesn't truly rank with Wilt's 100 pt game, it's merely the 2nd highest scoring game ever, but it fell 19 points short... sportswriters and ESPN reporters will TRY to make it more significant than Wilt's game (it's already started on PTI and Around the Horn), because writers and ESPN reporters today have an uncontrollable need to say "I was there when...". EVERYTHING has to be a moment with them, and history begins the day THEY started reporting...

But it was an awesome performance from Kobe!

And of course, if Jordan had score 81 in a game, no one would have called HIM a selfish gunner!

[Brian Damage]

And of course, if Jordan had score 81 in a game, no one would have called HIM a selfish gunner!


But he didn't, he could've, but never did. He dished it to his teamates too.

[Tweety]

But he didn't, he could've, but never did. He dished it to his teamates too.


yes, that's very true...

if you go to http://www.michaeljordansworld.com, there is a complete, career, game log of every game Jordan ever played... it only lists points, rebounds and assists, but that's enough...

I haven't looked at his whole career, but I looked at various years, focusing on his 50 point games... he has a few 50-60 pt games with anywhere from 6 to 9 assists, although a few with 1 or 2 assists as well...

His 63 pt playoff game in 2 OT against the Celtics shows him with 6 assists.

I noticed another 61 pt game in 1986-87 with 3 assists...

His career high 69 pt game saw him dish for 6 assists... that was in the 89/90 season...

Overall, Jordan averaged 5.3 assists per game over his career, Kobe to date is at 4.4... Kobe averaged a career high 6 assists per game last year (2004-05)...


Kobe's APG have been pretty much on an upward trend since his rookie year, peaking at 6.0 last year, down to 4.3 so far this season...

Jordan's career high was 8.0 APG, in 1988-89 (while playing 81 games). Second highest was 6.3 APG...

Wilt averaged 4.4 assists per game for his career, back when the assist rules were much stricter (i.e. if a player dribbled the ball before making a shot, no assist was credited...it pretty much had to be a 'catch and shoot' situation) This rule was relaxed greatly beginning in the 80s...

[vashti1999]

Anybody who wants to see the Kobe game, NBA-TV is scheduled to show it tonight at 1 a.m. eastern