Basketball · 2006 · Los Angeles, USA
81
Eighteen points down in the first half to a struggling Toronto side, Kobe Bryant takes the game over on his own and finishes with 81.
81
Points scored
Lakers 122-104 Raptors
Result
28-46 FG, 7-13 3PT, 18-20 FT
Shooting line
The Los Angeles Lakers trailed the Toronto Raptors by 18 points in the first half on 22 January 2006, in a regular-season game that had given nobody a reason to pay attention. Kobe Bryant started scoring in bursts through the second and third quarters, and the Lakers came back almost entirely on his shooting.
By the fourth quarter he was scoring more or less at will: 28 of 46 from the field, 7 of 13 from three-point range, 18 of 20 from the free-throw line, and a final total of 81 points, more than the entire Toronto team managed across the first three quarters. The Lakers won 122-104.
Only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962 sits above it in NBA history, and Chamberlain's was played with no cameras in the building. Bryant's is the highest total anyone has watched happen live on television.
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