Los Angeles Lakers: 30 greatest individual performances in team history

Los Angeles Lakers: 30 greatest individual performances in team history: 15. Kobe Bryant was relentless

The last time Kobe Bryant was on the floor of the NBA Finals, he was walking off towards the locker room in disgust as green and white confetti rained on his head in Boston Garden. The Celtics destroyed Bryant’s Lakers to close them out by the tune of 39 points. That number represented the second-most lopsided loss in Finals history.

Seemingly still pissed with the way things turned out, Bryant took out his frustrations on the Orlando Magic the following year in the Finals. He ripped them apart in Game 1 as he scored 40 points, grabbed 8 boards and dished out 8 assists. He was also on point defensively, recording two blocks and two steals. Bryant nearly singlehandedly outscored the Magic starters, 46-40.

Bryant’s normally aggressive nature went up another notch as he took nearly three times the number of shots as the second-best player on that year’s team in Pau Gasol. But, with a shooting percentage of 47.1, Bryant simply demoralized the Magic all game long and all series long as well.

The Lakers would go on to win Game 1 by 25 points, the 12th highest point differential in Finals history. It wasn’t quite the 39 point blowout that he suffered the year prior but Bryant made a statement.