Point Total Is Second-Most Ever in NBA — Oh, and Lakers Also Rally for Win
When it was thrown around in the aftermath of Kobe Bryant’s 62-point game in three quarters against the Dallas Mavericks, the number seemed like nothing more than a footnote to one of the greatest nights in the superstar guard’s career.
Nobody ever had scored 80 points in an NBA game except for Wilt Chamberlain on one immortal night in Hershey, Pa., and nobody would ever again. Until Bryant, only 33 days after the Dallas game, did the unthinkable Sunday night at Staples Center.
The box score doesn’t look believable unless you were there. Bryant finished with 81 points, 55 in the second half, single-handedly bringing the Lakers back from 18 points down in the third quarter in a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
“It hasn’t really sank in yet,” Bryant said. “We have four days off coming up here and I would have been sick as a dog if we’d lost this game. I just wanted to step up and inspire them to play a better game and it turned into something pretty special.”
“To sit here and say that I grasp what happened tonight, I’d be lying,” Bryant later added.
The short list of players to score even 70 in an NBA game includes only Chamberlain, David Thompson, Elgin Baylor and David Robinson. Bryant sank seven free throws in the last 2 1/2 minutes to write his name second to Chamberlain in the record books.
There were no cameras to record Chamberlain’s 100-point game on March 2, 1962, while Bryant’s night was broadcast live in two countries. He was asked in a packed interview room afterward if he ever could have fathomed scoring 80 points.
“Not even in my dreams,” Bryant said. “It’s something that just kind of happened. It’s tough to explain. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things.”
Bryant departed to roars with 4.2 seconds left and public address announcer Lawrence Tanter advising fans to save their ticket stubs. On his way to the bench, Bryant shared a hug with Lakers coach Phil Jackson, the significance of which was not lost on Bryant.
Kobe Bryant dunks for two of his career high 81-point against the Raptors. Kobe’s 81 points are second all-time in the NBA in a single game, only behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 in 1962. (Daily Breeze: Scott Varley)
“It’s special because we’ve been through so much,” said Bryant, who was called uncoachable by Jackson in the coach’s best-selling diary of the 2003-04 season. “We’ve been through so many battles, we’ve been through so many things.
“And it’s special for me because when I play the game, I play the game to try to please him. If he’s happy with my performance, it makes me happy because I learned the game from him. ... He just looked at me and smiled at me and said he was proud of the way I played.”
Jackson, who sat Bryant for six minutes at the start of the second quarter, with the Lakers falling behind by 14 in the process, relayed an exchange he had late in the fourth quarter with assistant coach Frank Hamblen on the bench.
Needless to say, Jackson wasn’t keeping track of how many points Bryant had totaled on the night.
“I said, ‘I think I’d better take him out now, I think this is a time where I felt the game was sealed,’” Jackson said. “He said, ‘I don’t think you can. He’s got 77 points.’ So we stayed with it until he hit 80.”
Bryant went 28 of 46, 7 of 13 from 3-point range and 18 of 20 from the foul line. He had 14 points in the first quarter, 12 in the second, 27 in the third and 28 in the fourth. The Raptors tried everyone from Morris Peterson to Jose Calderon in an attempt to stop him.
The only blemish on the night? Bryant’s franchise-record streak of consecutive made free throws came to an end at 62 in the final minute of the first half.
“To be honest with you, that’s not exactly the way you want to have a team win a game,” Jackson said of the one-man show. “But when you have to win a game, it’s great to be able to have that weapon to do it with.”
Kobe gets a hug from his coach Phil Jackson and cheers from his teammates as he exits his historic 81-point performance. (Daily Breeze: Scott Varley)
Rookie center Andrew Bynum, an Xbox player, summed up Bryant’s night by saying, “He’s the human joystick of basketball.”
Center Chris Mihm was asked about the 100-point game and pointed out that the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain probably got most of his points around the basket. Bryant got 81 on jump shots and drives and went to the foul line only once in the third quarter.
As hard as it might be to believe, the game could have gone the other way in the second half. The Lakers trailed 69-51 as Matt Bonner hit a 3-pointer with 9:55 left in the third, staring at a loss to one of the NBA’s lowliest teams.
“We’re a team that comes out flat in the third quarter,” guard Smush Parker said, “and it could have definitely got ugly and we could have just gave up.”
But Bryant connected on four 3-pointers, scoring 27 of the Lakers’ 42 points in the third. He capped the quarter by jumping to get a hand on a Mike James pass in the backcourt, beating Calderon to the ball and throwing down a two-handed dunk to put the Lakers in front 87-85.
With the Lakers leading 91-85, Bryant finally got his chance to play in the fourth quarter, something that didn’t happen in the Dallas game. Bryant hit 7 of 13 shots in the fourth and 12 of 13 free throws, the crowd on its feet for almost every one.
“When he had like 57 and there were 11 minutes left in the game,” Mihm said, “we were like, ‘Oh, boy.’ I said 72. Obviously, I was quite shy.”
On a historic night, Bryant said the most memorable thing might have been a phone call he took in the locker room from Magic Johnson afterward.
“That meant more to me than the game itself because I idolized him as a kid,” Bryant said, “and for him to call me and tell me what a great game it was and how proud of me he is, that meant more to me than 81 points.”
The Lakers reached the midpoint of their season at 22-19 with the victory. The only question left is what Bryant, now averaging an astounding 35.9 points per game, will do for an encore.