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NBA Fact or Fiction: The next 81-point scorer, skipping the COVID line and the upstart Cavaliers

Each week during the 2020-21 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into three of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether the trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

[Last week: The fixed Sixers, Kyrie Irving retirement talk and Jerami Grant's All-Star case]

Someone will score 81 points again

Friday marks 15 years since late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game. On a seventh-place team starting Smush Parker, Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm, Bryant made 28 field goals on 46 attempts (7-13 3P) and 18 of 20 free throws in 42 minutes of an 18-point win over the Toronto Raptors.