February 6th-23rd, 2003: Kobe Bryant's 40pts streak ÷ the top play from each of the 9 games. The '02-'03 season marked a new stage in his career, and that's not just Stiltsky's opinion. In Kobe's own words, "At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area." The Lakers were looking to 4-peat, something no team has ever done save for the Boston Celtics, who once 8-peated. After winning a 3rd straight title in 2002, Bryant, who was (and remains) at 23 years old the youngest player to have won 3 titles, made it known he was not content with just 3 rings. He added a noticeable amount of muscle in the offseason and began a half decade stretch that would comprise the best basketball of his career, although his level of play temporarily fell off in the two seasons after this ('03-'04 and '04-'05). The scoring feats he achieved in this '02-'03 season would only be topped by his play during stretches of '05-'06 (62pts in 3qtrs + 81pts) and '06-'07 (10 total 50pt games (4 50pt games in a row)). The Lakers had to make do without Shaq more and more due to the rigors of 82 game seasons where each game was like a tryout for opposing players, and that's before mentioning championship runs every year. Phil Jackson called on Kobe to bear more of the offensive load. Bryant was more than willing to oblige.
Here's what these games* looked like:
1) 46pts (17-27) 6reb 3ast 2stl in 41mins at NYK (W)
2) 42pts (12-20) 2reb 5ast 4stl in 31mins vs DEN (W)
3) 51pts (15-28) 3reb 2ast 2stl in 31mins** at DEN (W)
4) 44pts (19-41) 6reb 4ast 4stl 2blk in 45mins vs SAS (L)
5) 40pts (14-31) 4reb 5ast 2stl in 42mins vs NYK (L)
6) 52pts (19-38) 8reb 7ast 3blk in 54mins vs HOU (W)***
7) 40pts (15-29) 6reb 1ast 1stl in 40mins at UTA (W)
8) 40pts (15-32) 7reb 1ast 5stl 2blk 42mins vs POR (W)
9) 41pts (13-34) 5reb 3ast 3stl in 42mins vs SEA (W)
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*Kobe scored 40, 38, 42, and 35 in the 4 games before this (13 games of 35pts+)
**was NBA record for least amount of time to score 50pts
***yes, I know I messed up the order in the vid, will fix later (s/b NYK L b4 HOU W)

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