Q1 · 12:00
The farewell
The Lakers were 16–65, the worst record in franchise history. Nobody came for the standings. 18,997 people came to watch Kobe Bryant play one last time, against a Utah team still clinging to playoff hopes.
60PTS
April 13, 2016 · Staples Center · Game 1,346 of 1,346
Kobe Bryant's final night
Twenty seasons ended with 50 shots, 60 points and a ten-point comeback in the last two and a half minutes. Scroll to replay it shot by shot, or take the controls and scrub through the game yourself.
22–50FG
6–213PT
10–12FT
4REB
4AST
42:09MIN
FINALQ1Q2Q3Q4T
UTA2136182196
LAL19232435101
Q1 · 5:34
Five misses
His first five shots all missed: a 24-foot three, a 19-footer, and three more from inside 17 feet, including one from a single foot away. The Lakers trailed 6–4.
Q1 · End
Fifteen in five minutes
A 10-foot jumper with 5:12 left broke the drought. He scored all 15 of his first-quarter points in the final five minutes.
Q2 · Halftime
Utah pulls away
Kobe sat until 6:13 of the second quarter. The Jazz built a 15-point lead with 1:43 left in the half.
Halftime: Jazz 57, Lakers 42. Kobe had 22 on 7-of-20.
Q3 · End
Still shooting
Another 15 in the third. Through three quarters he had 37 points on 14-of-34, and the Lakers still trailed 75–66.
Q4 · 2:36
Down ten
Chris Johnson's layup made it 96–86 with 2:36 to play. Kobe had 47.
Utah would not score again. The timeline zooms in here: every mark is the final two and a half minutes.
Q4 · 1:00
The run
Two free throws. A layup. A 14-footer. Then a 25-foot three with a minute left: 96–95.
Q4 · 0:31
The lead
He pulled up from 19 feet. Lakers 97, Jazz 96, their first lead since the first quarter.
Two free throws with 15 seconds left made it 60.
Q4 · 0:04 · Final
One more assist
His last play was a pass to Jordan Clarkson for a dunk. Then he walked off. Final: Lakers 101, Jazz 96. Kobe scored 13 points in a 15–0 closing run and 17 straight Lakers points before that final assist.
The court is yours now. Press play, drag the timeline, or hover any shot.
Q40:00
96UTA
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101LAL
60Kobe
points
points
FG22–503PT6–21FT10–12
MakeMiss
Chapter 2 · The anatomy
Sixty squares
One square per point, in the order he scored them, stacked by quarter. The fourth-quarter column is the tallest: 23 points, 13 of them in the final 2:36.
Hover or tap a square to see the basket it came from.
Chapter 3 · Shot diet
From every range
Fifty attempts, spread from the rim to 31 feet. The outline is attempts, the gold fill is makes.
Chapter 4 · Context
That same night
37y 234d
His age. No older player had ever scored 60 in an NBA game.
17.6
His scoring average that season. He had not reached 40 points in any game before this one.
33,643
Career points when he walked off, third on the all-time list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
73–9
Four hundred miles north, Golden State won its 73rd game the same night, breaking the 1995–96 Bulls' record. Most of the country was watching Los Angeles.
Chapter 5 · Twenty seasons
Six games of 60
Kobe scored 60 or more six times. The first five came in a four-year stretch at his peak. The sixth came nine years later, in his last game.
After the buzzer
Mamba
out.
He took the microphone at center court, thanked the fans for twenty years, and signed off with two words.
