8 Most Memorable Kobe Bryant Games
4. 2006: The 81 Point Game
"You know what's cooler than scoring 62 points in a game?" asked Justin Timberlake. "Scoring 81 points."
OK, so that actually wasn't the line in The Social Network, but it should have been. In the same season that he rained buckets on the Mavericks, Bryant decided to take out his aggressions on the Toronto Raptors.
In January 2006, the world would bear witness to Kobe Bryant's magnum opus. Starting relatively slow, he would only have 14 points in the first quarter and 26 by the half. The explosion would come in the third as Kobe more than doubled his first half production, dropping 27 points on Toronto. Not content with his efforts and only leading by 6 going into the fourth quarter, he would one-up himself by adding another 28 points.
The Raptors' Jalen Rose and rising star Chris Bosh couldn't keep up with Bryant's scoring output. By the time he was done, his stat line looked like something out of NBA 2K.
81 points (and 2 assists!)
"The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real." ~Kobe