Bam Adebayo shocked the sports world on Tuesday night when he scored 83 points, passing Kobe Bryant's 81-point game and setting off waves of controversy. His feat may be short-lived, however, as in just a couple of weeks Luka Doncic will have a chance to claim the record back for the Los Angeles Lakers when they welcome the Washington Wizards to town.
Many parties have felt aggrieved over Adebayo's feat -- that he harmed the integrity of the game by pushing for so many points, that his teammates were wrong to foul to get the ball back, that his record will be forever tainted by the "tactics" he and the Miami Heat used to get him to 83 points. That because he scored that many points against the lowly Washington Wizards in a blowout, it doesn't hold the same sheen as Kobe's unimpeachable 81 points.
The Lakers are upset at Bam passing Kobe
The Lakers as an organization and a fan base are one of those aggrieved parties. While technically Wilt Chamberlain has the record for a single game with 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors, that is both unreachable enough and happened long before anyone's memory that it almost doesn't count. The record everyone was chasing was Kobe's 81.
Players have come close in recent years, breaking the 70-point threshold, but no one got even within a few points of Kobe's 81. It was a record that stood at the top of the mountain as challenger after challenger fought to reach it. Now someone has - and in the process, snatched the greatest legacy away from the late Kobe Bryant.
Everything else Kobe accomplished -- the titles, the fame, the career numbers -- were matched by other players. This record was his, the modern scoring title, the untouchable and jaw-dropping performance to drop 81 poionts on the Toronto Raptors in 2006. And now that record is no more.
The Lakers cannot put Kobe back on top of that mountain -- but perhaps they can ensure it's a member of the Lakers who holds the throne.
Luka Doncic can pass Bam Adebayo
One of those players who has come close to matching Kobe Bryant's 81 in recent years is Luka Doncic, one of the league's great scorers. In 2024 he dropped 73 points on the Atlanta Hawks, and the Dallas Mavericks needed every one of them in a close 5-point win.
The pathway to scoring that many points in a game is to be prolific in every quarter, and that includes getting off to a hot stat. Bam Adebayo had 31 points in the first quarter to set him running toward 83 points. Hot starts are a Doncic specialty, however, as three times he has scored at least 22 points in the first quarter just this season.
The other pathway is playing a team with an outmatched defense, ideally one also trying to lose games by sitting its best players. Adebayo put up his monstrous night against the moribund Washington Wizards.
Guess who is coming to town at the end of the month?
Luka will shred the Wizards
The Wizards will be visiting Hollywood on March 30th to play the Lakers, and Doncic has to be champing at the bit to take them on. If he gets off to a hot start and drops 20+ points in the first quarter, the race to 84 will be on.
Doncic is a foul-drawing machine, and the Wizards appear to be all-too-willing to foul and put stars on the line. Add in his ability to get hot from deep and his comfort pulling up in the midrange, and it's not clear how the Wizards intend to slow him down. If Doncic wants to drop 40 in that game, he'll drop 50.
Getting to 70, 80, 84? That's obviously a more difficult feat. If the Wizards start outright triple-teaming him, as they did to Bam Adebayo late in his game, then Doncic will pass out of it and allow Austin Reaves or another teammate to get theirs. It's not a guarantee he will control his own destiny.
The ingredients are all there, however, for a spectacular meal. And while Lakers fans would prefer that Kobe Bryant still held his modern record for scoring, having another Laker take back the trophy -- and so suddenly -- would be no small comfort.
Luke Doncic. 84 points. March 30th. Book it.