After missing the playoffs in the spring of 2005, the Los Angeles Lakers were looking to rebound in the 2005-06 season, but their chances of doing so didn’t look great.
They had even less talent on paper after trading Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins, their second- and fourth-highest scorers, respectively, for Kwame Brown, a big man who averaged 7.4 points a game that year.
That meant head coach Phil Jackson, who was returning after a one-year sabbatical, had to give Kobe Bryant the green light on offense for the first time.
Bryant took full advantage, but what he did over the first 20 games of the schedule — when he averaged 30.8 points per game — paled in comparison to what was to come.
On Dec. 12, the Lakers took on the Dallas Mavericks, and Bryant delivered his best game of the young season.
He scored 43 points and hit a ridiculous 3-pointer in crunch time to secure a 109-106 win.
At that time, 40-point games were still something of a novelty for Bryant. It was just his fourth such game that season.
However, in his next 20 contests, he surpassed the 40-point mark nine times, and he did so 27 times that season.
Two of those games, in particular, would help define his career and legacy.
