Vs. Oklahoma City Thunder/Seattle SuperSonics – April 15, 2007
In the next to last season that the Seattle SuperSonics were up in the Pacific Northwest before moving to Oklahoma City and being rebranded as the Thunder, Kobe made sure to come up with a nice parting gift in one of his last games against the green and gold. That parting gift came to the tune of a 50-point outing for Bryant in one of Kobe’s most efficient and well-rounded 50-point games of his career.
Lest we forget (because I’ve said it roughly 6,000 times over the course of this look back at Kobe’s career), this game happened during the era of the Lakers when it was either Kobe having a big game or the Lakers failing. Subsequently, Bryant stepped up to the plate and had a big outing as he put up his 50 points on 18-25 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from long-range. What really makes this game stand out is that Kobe was able to put up three assists, eight rebounds, and two steals while only turning the ball over once. As the second leading scorer only had 14 points, the Lakers needed every bit of Kobe going off to make that happen.
Next: Vs. Magic