Creative Sports: A History of Hoops: The Story of the Los Angeles Lakers

Creative Sports: A History of Hoops: The Story of the Los Angeles Lakers — page 3
ANGELES LAKERS A HERITAGE OF GREATNESS On January 22 2006 few people were tuned into the National Basketball Association NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers The conference championship games of the National Football League were also playing and the winners would go to the Super Bowl However that NBA game became famous for Kobe Bryant's high scoring record They the Lakers had Kobe and a bunch of guys play by play commentator Bill Macdonald said We knew for them to be in any game Kobe was going to have to go completely nuts Toronto took a 14 point lead at halftime Lakers star shooting guard Bryant had 26 points at that point That was fine with the Raptors He's killing us but the rest of the team is doing nothing and we're winning We didn't think he would keep scoring like he was said Toronto guard Jose Calderon Calderon was wrong Two minutes into the third quarter Toronto extended its lead to 69-51 At that point Bryant started to go completely nuts He scored 13 points in the next 3 minutes A slam dunk near the end of the quarter put the Lakers ahead by two points In all Bryant had 27 points in that quarter In the fourth quarter he scored a whopping 20 points in the game's final 6 minutes Bryant had recorded 55 points in the second half That was 14 more than the entire Toronto team He finished with 81 points Only Wilt Chamberlain with 100 in 1962 has had more points in a single game The Lakers won 122-104 Vonesa