unbelievable performance tonight by Mr. Bryant. Good decision not to play him in the 4th. No risk for injury when they got the game wrapped up.

I would have liked to see him break the record. It was definitely in reach and the way Kobe was playing, there is no doubt in my mind he would have surpassed it.

He was unbelieveable tonight. Ive never seen a guy totally overwhelm a team like Kobe did tonight. Im really speechless. 31 Shots? 31 Points in a Quarter? 62 points in 3 quarters? Just unbelieveable.

before we get too buried in the thread, let's hear it for great team defense!!

oh, who am I kidding...

WOOO HOOOO!!!!

Somehow buried in that statement about protecting home court, I think #8 might've also been sending a message to a certain 330lb. Secret Santa who may have been qouted recently bad-mouthing a certain organization's boss's choice last summer. Pretty hard to believe Buss made the wrong decision here...

AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE....how nobody scored over 10 points.

What was awesome about this was that Kobe kept it up. We've seen this before for one half, only to have him peter out. But, as he mentioned in his press conference, he wasn't necessarily "feeling it", he was just attacking, and being assertive. It wasn't all outside shots. This is something he can CONTINUE doing. Obviously not for 60 plus points, but for 50% FG most nights, and 10 plus FTs. Damn. This was a great night.

6th seed? Bah! I'm thinking that the 2 seed is easily within reach. Phoenix is missing Amare for a few more months. Golden State is a jump shooting team that is going to fade as soon as Baron Davis goes down with his yearly injury. The Los Angeles Clippers are.........the Clipppers.

Yeah, I think the Lakers can take the division.

go shaq, go.

end of the 3rd qtr:

bryant 62 mavs 61

holee crap! just. wow.

Kobe is WITHOUT DOUBT the best player in the league, and definitely one of the all-time greats by scoring 62 points. But doing it in THREE (3!!!!) quarters just puts him on MJ status (btw, has MJ done anything like this? In three quarters?).

All I can say is the MDE is now wishing he'll get injured before the Miami-LA showdown or he'll have to pass that title to Kobe.

Man. Three quarters?

I think Kobe was wanting to break Shaq's record of 61 and send a message to the big guy--"here I come!"

who is this Mike Breshanan guy on latimes. even a night like this from kobe, and the guy still bashed him.

"When he came out for a rest with 2:15 left in the second quarter, he had 32 points on 11-for-17 shooting. He was put back into the game with 6.3 seconds left until halftime but his three-point attempt at the buzzer missed, one of few times he disappointed the crowd."

Info for comparison (and water cooler talk):

Michael Jordan's 1986 playoff game against the Celtics
Double OT ... 53 minutes...22-41 FGs...no three point attempts, although they did have 3's back then ...19-21 FTS ... 5 Rebounds ... 6 assists ... 4 fouls ...3 steals... 4 turnovers ...2 blocked shots ... Bulls lost

So you can be an informed fan. Yes, it was the playoffs.

Laron Profit is out for the season! Bummer!

Tonight's performance was vintage Kobe.. scoring from every part of the floor...dunks, 3 pointers, slashing lay ups, pull up jumpers, hard offensive board put backs.... wish Chicky was around to see this one. Chick might have put this game in the refrigerator in the second quarter...The lights out, the eggs coolin', the butters gettin hard and the jellooo is jigglin, baby... We miss you Chicky.

I don't know what the haters are talking about. I don't care if Kobe take 30 shots as long as he's making at least or more than half of them while getting to the freethrow line in the process, which he did plenty of. I hate that Laron is out for the season, I hope Ronny Turiaf plays himself back into game shape cause he would be a nice addition. Teams like the Kings, Nuggets, Sonics, Clippers are stating to lose more frequently, which is great. They need to start playing more consistent at home though. Tonight was a great start.

I remember sitting down with Phil 10 years ago and listening to him talk about watching Michael Jordan on those special nights.
"Some nights he would take on a whole team," Phil said of Michael. "They'd say, 'That son of a gun, he beat us all to the basket.' As a coach, you can run that tape back all day. You say, 'Look at this guy go around that guy and that guy. He beat four guys going to the basket that time.' That's destructive. That's something that Michael's been known for, and I know it grates at the heart of the other team."
Yet even all of Michael's great performances didn't prepare Jackson for Kobe's 62 on Tuesday night.
"A 30-point third quarter, there's never been anything like that that I've seen," Jackson told reporters afterward. "That was unique in itself."
When Kobe was young and struggling with his Laker teammates in 1999, I talked to him a long time one afternoon in Houston.
"I just want to be the man," Kobe told me, explaining that he wanted to dominate pro games the way he had dominated high school games when he scored 50 points.
That's all I could think about as I watched him beat his chest as he left the floor.
Former Lakers psychologist George Mumford, who also worked with the Bulls, said Kobe is the only athlete he's ever encountered who had an Alpha male competitiveness that approached Jordan's.
Truth is, Phil was the most amazed, yet the least comfortable, on the nights when Jordan turned it all loose. Phil admitted to me there was something almost frightening in those displays.
"That attitude, that tremendous competitiveness, sometimes makes it tough to be a teammate, because you see that tremendous competitiveness is gonna eat you up everywhere. It's gonna eat you up playing golf with him next week, playing cards with him nexts month. That attitude of arrogance is gonna be there. It's not always the best for personal connections and friendship. But it certainly makes for greatness."
To me, that explains to some degree why Kobe's teammates had so much trouble with him when he was younger. It was no small irony that Rick Fox was sitting courtside Tuesday night. Fox was one of those older members of the pack when Kobe was a young cub. And sitting on the Mavs bench was his old coach, Del Harris, who took over the Dallas team after head coach Avery Johnson was thrown out of the game. Harris spent the rest of the night trying to appear composed.
Fortunately for the Lakers, this was about much, much more than the past.
Kobe threw that 62 points out as his answer to the loss to Houston Sunday night. Now, it's just sort of out there. The Dallas Mavericks will have to deal with being destroyed. And Phil Jackson will have to deal with all the good and bad of such a performance, such a statement game.
It's good Phil has experience with pulling such a force within the team structure and harnessing it. More important, Kobe, too, is learning to do that. Because it's like an atomic weapon; it can be almost as destructive for the Lakers as it will be for the Mavericks.

Roland Lazenby
author of The Show

tungtwista - what's your deal? It was one of the few times he dissapointed the crowd. Do you not get that he's being sarcastic? He's actually complimenting Kobe. He's exagerating for the purpose of our entertainment and amusement. I like Bresnahan, he's a good writer, he's one of the few things about the Times that's still entertaining. Without him I'd never be able to keep up with the team.

Kobe deciding NOT to play 4th quarter makes him GREAT player. Jackson would`ve let him play if Kobe insisted after 62 points.

I just wanted to make a correction from statements previously made. Phil Jackson did not sit Kobe for the 4th quarter. IT was Kobe that sat Kobe for 4th quarter. Although I am obviously in awe of his performance last night, I must say that I am evem more impressed by the maturity and class prevalent in the following two lines that I am cutting&pasting from Bresnhan's article in the Times:

"Bryant did not play in the fourth, declining Jackson's invitation to reenter the game if he so desired."

"That's not what we play for," Bryant said. "That's not what it's about. It's not to score 70 points. We wanted to win the game, and the game was in the bag. It was in the refrigerator."

Good stuff!

62...one more than Shaq's career high, one less than Jordan's. I think Kobe and Phil know exactly how to send a message with a single number.

WOW its the next day and i all i can athink about is yesterdays game. Kobe went bazooka on the Mavs. I wanted him to pass out of the triple teams also, but he was just feeling it and knew he was sitting out the fourth. Anybody see the shot Kobe took to the neck from Howard? Kobe is gonna be sore from that hit i bet. oh yeh he had 62 pts enough said. I read couple articles complaining about the fact he had zero assists. I find it amazing how they find ways to hate on kobe, but kobe stated that his teamates wanted him to take the shots and he was determined to win the game. After all last game his teamates were the ones that let him down. He shared the ball more than enough times and they came up blank. Give Kobe a break!

Shaq's continued badgering of of Dr. Buss and Kobe has gotten very tired. Come Christmas, the diesel e.g. fat guy who has trouble staying healthy for half a season is going to get his.

What a performance by #8, unbelievable..... At what point will M. Cuban blame Kobe's performance on the Refs.... note to M. Cuban, get rid of those brutal uni's, I've heard of throwbacks but those were like late 1800's bad.... Keep it up Kobe and happy holidays to all....

Is it just me or is Tim Legler on ESPN's NBA shootaround another Kobe basher? I remember they had a comparison between the two 30 point per game scorers, Kobe and AI. Tim Legler doesn't really give props to Kobe or the Lakers saying that he'd rather have Iverson on all accounts, and saying the Lakers will not make the playoffs. Greg Anthony on the other hand, supports the Lakers and believes that they WILL make the playoffs, even to go as far as to say that Kobe might be the MVP this year. Anyways, I was watching this show again last night, and Tim Legler looked like a cat caught his tongue. He was speechless, yet he managed to mutter some words that contradicted himself by praising Kobe. I could just imagine the reaction on Greg Anthony's face. When it was his turn to speak, he reiterated his stance that he believes the mix of Coach Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant is enough to propel the Lakers into the playoffs.
In my opinion, the Lakers are starting to play better in the triangle, but most the most impressive improvement I see is the defense. I like the defensive combination of Smush and Kobe in the backcourt, as well as LO, Kwame, and Chris cleaning up the interior. Did you guys see all those blocks? Lakers might be able to win the Pacific, should Amare come back or not.