Bryant Says He Could Have Grooved to 80

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The "what-ifs" blew across the Southland like the Santa Ana winds Wednesday. As in, "What if Kobe Bryant actually played the entire game against the Dallas Mavericks?"

Bryant scored a career-high 62 points Tuesday night against visiting Dallas despite playing only three quarters in a 112-90 blowout victory.

Bryant originally balked at speculating on how many points he might have totaled had he played the fourth quarter, then threw out a figure that has been surpassed only once in NBA history, a historic 100-point effort by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962.

"Probably 80," Bryant said. "I was in a really, really good groove."

Bryant did match the highest-scoring NBA game since Tracy McGrady's 62 in March 2004 and produced the most points since David Robinson scored 71 against the Clippers to secure the 1993-94 season scoring title. Bryant's 30-point effort in the third quarter was a franchise best and the fourth highest in league history.

"I didn't even know I had that type of quarter until I sat down on the bench and just let it sink in," Bryant said. "I didn't think about really what was going on. I just kept attacking and attacking."

Coach Phil Jackson gave Bryant the opportunity to re-enter the game with about nine minutes remaining, but Bryant declined.

"I know people in our town, particularly, like to see Kobe have a game like that, we all do," Jackson said. "Kobe could have attacked if it was a game that was meaningful, flawless and had some competitive zest to it, but that 30-plus [lead] at that time, it wasn't meaningful."

Even Bryant's teammates found themselves watching in disbelief. Andrew Bynum, an 18-year-old rookie, said he was too young to remember Michael Jordan's career-high 69-point game in 1990 or Robinson's 71.

"That was incredible," Bynum said. "I had never seen anything like that."</div>

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