Several years ago, NBA officials made changes to the game to encourage faster play and allow for more scoring. Those same NBA officials would have been proud of the offensive spectacle on Sunday night.
On a night when the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns hooked up for 301 points in a game, Kobe Bryant nabbed the headlines with an 81-point performance in the Los Angeles Lakers' 122-104 win over the Toronto Raptors. Bryant's explosion was the second-highest in a single game behind Wilt Chamberlain's infamous 100-point game in 1962.
After a "quiet" first half in which Bryant scored 26 points, the Lakers trailed by as many as 18 in the third quarter. That's when Bryant took the game in his hands, crossing the 50-point threshold with a steal and a dunk with 1:11 left in the third quarter that gave Los Angeles the lead at 87-85. Bryant would add one more dunk in the quarter to give him 53 points through three quarters. Coach Phil Jackson couldn't afford to rest his star, however, as the Lakers led by just six going into the fourth.
With 9:47 left in the game, the Lakers found themselves up just three, with the team scoreless in the quarter. At that point, Bryant put the team on his back, scoring all but three of his team's points in the quarter, sinking 28 in the final 12 minutes.
The Raptors did everything they could to stop Bryant down the stretch, but found that they could only foul him. In addition to hitting 28 of 46 shots, and all seven three-point attempts, Bryant converted 18 of 20 free throws, including his final seven points of the night.
Bryant's performance was unprecedented in modern basketball. While Wilt Chamberlain passed the 70-point threshold six times, only David Robinson has done so in the recent era, scoring 71 points in a game in 1994. The immortal Michael Jordan maxed out at 69 points, which he achieved in a 1990 overtime victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bryant leads the league in scoring this year with 35.9 points per game, and has crossed the 50-point barrier four times already this season. On Dec. 20 he poured in what was then a career-high 62 points. Remarkably, Bryant has failed to score 20 points in a game only three times this season.
But lately, Bryant has elevated his play to a whole new level, averaging over 45 points a game in his last 11 games, putting up fewer than 37 only once. Amazingly, Bryant leads Allen Iverson in the scoring race by only 2.5 points. Iverson won the title last year with just over 30 points a game, a total that three players appear poised to eclipse this year, with LeBron James averaging 31 points per game.
Bryant was not the only one illustrating the NBA's scoring renaissance on Sunday night. Ray Allen hit a long three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Sonics a 152-149 double-overtime victory over the Suns. The two teams combined for the most points in a game in 11 years, and Allen's shot broke the NBA record for most three-pointers in a game, with 32. After scoring only 10 in the first three quarters, Allen really turned it on, finishing with 42 points and eight three-pointers. Shawn Marion led the Suns with 37 points. The game was so high-scoring that even Raja Bell and Luke Ridnour scored 31 and 30 points, respectively.
Last year, the Suns and Sonics were dubbed "turn back the clock" teams when they played a fast-paced brand of basketball that emphasized scoring and forgot about defense. While the Suns tightened up their defense slightly this season, they have kept up the offensive part of the equation, scoring over 105 points a game. Unfortunately for Sonics fans, however, their team has especially emphasized the bad defense part, allowing over 105 points a game.
