Kobe Bryant's 81-point game
Photo midway through Bryant's 81-point game against the Raptors on January 22, 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 22, 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Staples Center, Los Angeles, California | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 18,997 | ||||||||||||||||||
On January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored a career-high 81 points for the Los Angeles Lakers in a 122–104 win over the Toronto Raptors. Bryant scored what was at the time the most points scored since the NBA–ABA merger and second-most points in a single-game in NBA history (since surpassed by Bam Adebayo's 83-point game in 2026 against the Washington Wizards).
The game, which the Lakers trailed 63–49 at halftime and 71–53 in the third quarter, saw Bryant play 42 minutes, shooting 28-of-46 from the field, including 7-of-13 on three-pointers, with 55 points in the second half. The game occurred during Bryant's extraordinary scoring season in 2005–06, which not only included scoring 81 points, but outscoring the entire Dallas Mavericks team (62–61) through three quarters on December 20, 2005, 40 points or more in 27 games, and six games of 50 points or more. As such, he led the league with 35.4 points per game (PPG) that season, the highest PPG total since Michael Jordan’s 37.09 in 1986–87.
Unlike Chamberlain's 100-point game, the game was televised locally in Los Angeles and the surrounding Southern California areas on FSN West (Fox Sports Net West). Bill Macdonald (play-by-play, filling in for Joel Meyers who was calling that year's NFC Championship Game for CBS Radio), Stu Lantz (analyst), and Patrick O'Neal (sideline) were the FSN West television broadcasters. The game was also available in Canada on theScore and on NBA League Pass in North America through a cable provider.