Among Kobe Bryant’s remarkable achievements was the 81 points he tallied against the visiting Toronto Raptors on January 2, 2006 in Los Angeles. This is because it was the closest somebody came to the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain over half-a century ago while playing for the then Philadelphia Warriors.
Kobe and his hot streak
Bryant connected 28 of 46 from the floor that night, including 7 of 13 from downtown, along with 18 of 20 from the 15-foot line in 42 minutes of play.
Kobe actually started “slow” in this one, knocking in “only” 14 of his points in the first canto and “only” 12 in the second as the Lakers trailed by 14 at halftime, 63-49.
When the Raptors extend it further to an 18 point lead early in the third, Kobe suddenly found out what a hot streak could do.
He started to make bucket after bucket, drilling in 27 in the third and 28 in the fourth while towing the Lakers to a win and himself to a formidable scoring record even if it would become only second rate.
He scored 55 of the 73 Laker points in the second half and 28 of the 31 during the fourth. Not only that, the Lakers would outscore the Raptors 42-22 during the third to take a 91-85 lead, and finished them off by further limiting them to just 19 in the fourth, 122-104.
Chambelain’s 100
The case of Chamberlain happened on March 2, 1962. When his Warriors faced the New York Knicks, he found a couple of “gifts” from the basketball gods to clear his path to the highest points scored in an NBA game record: a center depleted opponent and his free throws getting through the net.
Knick starting center Phil Jordon was out with the flu and the team instead started 6-10 Sophomore Darrall Imhoff, backed up by 6-9 Cleveland Buckner. Just two days earlier, the 7-1 Chamberlain torched Buckner with 28 points in just one quarter.
After one quarter, Chamberlain scored 23 points while sending Imhoff to the bench on foul trouble.
The other strange aspect on the Big Dipper’s performance this night was he was able to make all nine attempts from the line.
Strange, in a good way, because he normally makes just one of every two he attempts. Chamberlain is just a 51.1% career free throw shooter.
Chamberlain scored 19 more in the second to finish the half with 41 with the Warriors leading, 79-68. The Warriors felt little excitement because Chamberlain is a usual scorer of 60 point or above.
Before this game, he owns the highest score in regulation a 73 and the highest ever game score at 78 in a triple overtime game.
A brilliant ploy to get the record occurred when some Warriors felt giving him the ball and see how much he scores.
He scored 28 points in the third where the Warriors opened a 19 point lead, 125-106. By the 7:51 mark of the fourth, Chamberlain scored his 79th point of the game to reset his own record.
That’s when the crowd started egging him to get to 100.
Chamberlain responded by stepping it up despite efforts by the Knicks to deny him the ball.
With six minutes left, the Knicks started fouling every Warrior except for Chamberlain. The Warriors responded by fouling the Knicks to get back possession without the time expiring.
At the 2:12 mark, Chamberlain had 94. He then converted a fade away shot and two dunks to complete the century mark that now stands as one of the most opinionated unbreakable NBA record.
With two century mark scorers, is the PBA in a better or worse position?
In the PBA, only two persons made at least one hundred points in a game. Not surprisingly, they are imports.
On November 21, 1985, Michael Hackett knocked in 103 for Ginebra San Miguel in a game for third place against Great Taste during the Reinforced Conference.
That reset the highest single scoring game by a player in the PBA up to that point. Along with it, the 197 is the highest winning score and the 365 is the highest combined score ever.
Hackett finished the conference with a league-best 50.50 points per game that conference.
Seven years later, on October 10, 1992, Tony Harris had his turn and drilled in 105 points where his Swift Mighty Meaty stopped Ginebra San Miguel 151-147 in an out-of-town PBA game in Iloilo City during the Third Conference.
Harris lived by the free throw line that night as the Gins devised a tactic to send him to the free throw line. He went 45 of 53 that night.
Coach Yeng Guiao literally put the offense at the hands of Harris this conference as evidenced by his other outputs of 98, 87 and 82 in other games.
The Hurricane averaged 60.7 points in the conference, though surprisingly, only the second highest ever all-time in the PBA.
Incidentally, Robert Jaworski was involved in both records as playing coach for 1985 winner and 1992 loser Ginebra.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS, story originally published on December, 2015
