Kobe's Greatest Games: When he outscored an entire team for 3 quarters
The legendary Kobe Bryant has a number of memorable games in his incredible 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers team - he has 5 championship rings, over 33 thousand points, an MVP award and a number of achievements and records. One of his epic accomplishments, however, is not talked about enough, and is perhaps the strongest individual fight of his career.
In the 2005/06 season, the "lakes" were far from the role of favorites in the NBA, and the team was in a difficult period. Regardless, Kobe is in the prime of his career and is having some of his strongest individual games. Such is the case on Christmas Eve, December 20, 2005, when the Lakers face the Dallas Mavericks, and Bryant puts on an incredible show for the fans.
Within 3 quarters, he destroyed the team from Texas, scoring as many as 62 points. Throughout the evening, he looked like he couldn't miss, no matter how many people were guarding him or what position he shot the ball from.
After playing the first 36 minutes of the game, the guard has 62 points on 18/31 shooting from the field, as well as 22/25 from the free throw line. Even more interesting is the fact that for the three quarters he individually scored more points than the Dallas team itself – 62:61. The Lakers, in turn, were leading by a wide margin, and Phil Jackson (the Lakers' coach at the time) decided to take him out of the game to conserve his strength for the long NBA season. Of course, Bryant is not happy with this fact, but he accepts the decision.
“It was just one of those nights. Yes, I definitely could have scored over 80 points if I had played a full game. It might sound funny or crazy, but I definitely could have done it,” Bryant says after the memorable night.