Bryant scored 45 points and set NBA records with nine consecutive 3-pointers and 12 overall as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Seattle SuperSonics, 119-98, for their fourth win in five games.
"It wasn't like the basket was so huge, but it just felt like my rhythm was great," Bryant said. "I just felt an incredible rhythm. And the calmness, it wasn't like I was rushing or anything like that, it just felt really calm and just felt like I shoot it, I am going to make it."
It was the most points scored by the Lakers this season, who are in the midst of their best five-game stretch of the campaign.
Los Angeles led just 37-32 before Bryant hit his first 3-pointer with 5:28 left in the second quarter. He made his next five shots from the arc to help the Lakers to a 60-45 halftime advantage, then drilled his first three 3-pointers in the third quarter to break the NBA mark for consecutive 3-pointers in one contest.
"The shots he made in the first half and most of the second half were shots that for the most part, our guys were there," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. "I don't think he had any or maybe a couple uncontested shots. But he was great four feet behind the 3-point line. The guy found his rhythm with his shot and he just felt it."
The record was shared by three players.
"You just look up and all of the sudden you realize that you have six threes at the end of the second quarter, and that really didn't sink in because you are just shooting them one at a time. And the next thing you know, they just start coming and piling up," Bryant said.
"The only way I could stop Kobe from scoring was taking him out at the end of the third quarter," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "That was perhaps the greatest streak shooting I think I have ever seen in my life."
With 6:58 left in the contest, Bryant - who never had made more than five 3-pointers in a game - nailed his 12th, giving the Lakers a 101-84 lead and breaking the NBA record for 3-pointers in a game, set on April 18, 1996 by Dennis Scott of the Orlando Magic.
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