10. April 30, 2006: Game 4 vs. Phoenix. The “More than Just ‘The Shot’” Game. Down by five with 7 seconds left in regulation, his layup at the first buzzer caused an overtime. Then 5 minutes later … he hit one of the most demoralizing shots in NBA history. The Suns never — even today — really recovered from that down-by-one, top-of-the-circle, pull-up dagger at the buzzer in overtime that Kobe canceled them with. He put the Lakers up 3-1 in that series, eliminating all hopes of a title for Phoenix. Then and now Continue reading..
Down by five with 7 seconds left in regulation, his layup at the first buzzer caused an overtime. Then 5 minutes later … he hit one of the most demoralizing shots in NBA history. The Suns never — even today — really recovered from that down-by-one, top-of-the-circle, pull-up dagger at the buzzer in overtime that Kobe canceled them with. He put the Lakers up 3-1 in that series, eliminating all hopes of a title for Phoenix. Then and now Are you kidding me? The Suns came back and won 3 straight to devastate Kobe and the Lakers. They lost game 7 by about 30 points. The LAKERS were the ones eliminated, and in embarrassing fashion - blowing a 3-1 series lead and losing by 30 in game 7. To this day Kobe's critics say that "MJ never blow a 3-1 series lead" or "MJ never lost an elimination game by 30 points" The Lakers were demoralized in this series - not the Suns.
Yeah that was kind of awkward lol, but he scored 50 points efficiently in a losing effort. Not much more he can do in a closeout game 6 at home.
Why is Kobe's 81 only 9th? That definitely should be first as it is the 2nd greatest scoring effort in history. Most of us weren't even born to see Wilt's game anyway. Besides, how are Kobe's airballs ranked higher.
Kobe's 62 against Dallas in 3 quarters was more impressive than the 81 against Toronto. Soon to be retired Jalen Rose + Matt Bonnar spending a good portion of time defending Kobe = bad news. As well Toronto having no respectable shotblockers.
Agreed, and don't forget this, to add on to this point, Toronto did pick 1st overall in that year's upcoming draft, they were that bad. And edited slightly, just a spelling on a name.
If it's moments and not games, why is Kobe dropping 63 in 3 quarters #1? Toronto was/is a bad defensive team but they are far from the worst in league history. Still, Kobe managed to score the second most points in NBA history. It doesn't matter what team you are facing, 81 points is legendary and one of the greatest moments in NBA history. Let's also factor in that these horrible Raptors had a 20 point lead and were in the process of blowing out the Lakers. Irrelevant. What does it matter if they picked first overall. Any team in the lottery, regardless of their record, can get the first overall pick. There are western conference teams like Golden State last year who had a chance to pick first overall despite a 48-34 record. With that said, the Raptors were a bad team with only 27 wins, but whether they picked first overall is irrelevant considering they had the 5th worst record. And a 27 win team, while bad, is not bad enough to warrant 81 points by any player. They were good enough to be leading by 20 points against a 45 win team before Kobe single-handedly took over.
Means they sucked and were only 1 more losses from being tied for 3rd worst. However, your point is valid. Barely, highest team to get the top pick is the 9th and that was last year so really GS had 0.5% chance and that's generous.
Meh, I thought I posted this but. 1. The 5 guys to cover Kobe were Mo Pete (in foul trouble), Jalen Rose (lost 3 steps, and was basically a matador on defense), Matt Bonnar (6'8 guy, who doesn't have the footspeed to gaurd SGs, and sometimes covers PFs), Jose Calderon (probably was a rookie back then, he is a pg, and not a defensive specialist or anything). 2. The Raptors had no shotblocking presense, Araujo is a pile of turd, and can't jump more than 2 inches, and is like 6'10 heavy center. 3. Sam Mitchell didn't double team Kobe until there were 3 minutes left in the 4 quarter. You would think that you wouldn't wait until Kobe has 75 points before you finally put a double team on him.
