Basketball · 2006 · Los Angeles, USA
81
Trailing by eighteen points in the first half against a struggling Toronto team, Kobe Bryant takes over almost single-handedly and finishes with the second-highest scoring total in NBA history.
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, an unremarkable regular-season game that gave no early sign of what was coming. Kobe Bryant began scoring in bursts through the second and third quarters as the Lakers clawed back into it, largely through his own shooting.
By the fourth quarter Bryant was scoring almost at will, finishing 28 of 46 from the field, 7 of 13 from three-point range, and 18 of 20 from the free-throw line for a final total of 81 points, more than the entire Toronto team scored in the first three quarters combined. The Lakers won 122-104.
It remains the second-highest single-game scoring total in NBA history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962, and the highest ever scored in a game with full modern broadcast coverage. The performance is widely regarded as the greatest single-game scoring display anyone has watched live on television.
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