Just call him 81

Last month, Kobe Bryant had a game where he out-scored the Dallas Mavericks 62-61 through 3 quarters. Because the Lakers had a substantial lead, he and Coach Phil Jackson decided that he would not re-enter the game in the 4th quarter. After the game, there was a mixed reaction because there were many people who thought Kobe should have stayed in and scored as many points as possible because it would probably be a long time when he would have an opportunity to be in that same situation.

He had wait a little more than month to have a second chance. Last night, Kobe found the Lakers down by 18 points in the 3rd quarter and it seemed that they heading for another loss. He proceeded to lead the Lakers on a 38-14 run, he scored 23 of his 27 3rd quarter points during that run.

When the dust settled and the he went out with 4 seconds left in the game, he had scored another 28 points for a total of 55 for the second half (the Raptors only scored 41, so he outscored another team for a substantial period of time) and an eye popping 81 points for the game. The Lakers won the game 122-104 and Kobe secured his place in history becoming only the second player to score more than 80 points in a game.

This game will probably do nothing for the Kobe debate, it will intensify the Kobe lovers and haters to their postions. For those of us who want to watch a player at the top of his game and his desire to be the best player he can be, we can only stand on the sidelines and watch with awe.