Ranking Kobe Bryant’s 6 best performances against the Houston Rockets

1. 45 points on December 21st, 2000

Although Kobe had several games in which he scored more than 45 points against the Houston Rockets, his road performance in the third matchup of the 2000-01 season was much different. Kobe shot an insane 76.9 percent from the floor, as he went 20-of-26, which is simply unheard of.

Kobe only had one 3-point attempt and also had only six free-throw attempts, as he posted a true shooting percentage of 78.6 percent. Kobe got off to a perfect  7-of-7 start in the first quarter and 18 of the Lakers’ 28 first quarter points.

This was a year in which Kobe went 3-1 against the Houston Rockets and it came after Kobe dropped 37 points against the Rockets on November 12th of the same season. This would be the third-most points Kobe scored during the 2000-01 season, and this season culminated into Kobe’s second consecutive championship. On top of that, Kobe averaged 31.5 points against the Rockets during that season on 54.8 percent of his shots and 44.4 percent from downtown.

The Rockets had no answer for the up-and-coming Kobe, who was in his fifth season and was coming off of two All-Star appearances in the previous three years. The Rockets would ultimately fall to the hands on Kobe at the Compaq Center, which was then their home, by a score of 99-94, despite entering the fourth quarter with a tied game. Kobe scored 12 of the Lakers’ 25 fourth- quarter points and eventually posted his highest-scoring regular season averages up until that point.