Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant’s five best performances
By Jason Reed
1. 81-point game (January 21, 2006)
C’mon, before even clicking onto this article you had to have known that this would be the best performance of Bryant’s career. Kobe set history with this game. It is easily the most dominant game of our time and is the second best only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962. However, Chamberlain towered over his competition then, this arguably took more skill.
It is even crazier to think that if Phil Jackson did not pull Bryant in the third quarter just a month prior, he could have had two 80 point games in the span of 32 days.
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Bryant absolutely caught fire against the Toronto Raptors on January 21, 2006. Kobe scored 81 on 28 of 46 shooting, making seven of his 13 three-point attempts and 18 of his 20 free throws. After dropping 26 points in the first half of the contest, Bryant went on to drop 27 and 28 points in the third and fourth quarter, respectively.
Just imagine if Bryant would have caught fire earlier in the contest. Kobe scored 55 points alone in the second half, if he had caught fire earlier he easily could have flirted with the century mark.
At the end of the day, all Bryant ever cared about is winning and his monster performance guided the Los Angeles Lakers to a 122-104 victory over the Raptors. After entering the second half trailing by 14, Bryant outscored the Raptors 55-41 in the second half.
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Kobe Bryant will undoubtedly go down as the best Laker to ever do it and a top five, maybe even top three, player of all-time. His 20-year career was filled with domination and spectacular moments that will all be epitomized by his numbers hanging in the Staples Center’s rafters.