The NBA world is still talking about Bam Adebayo breaking the modern day scoring record by recording an astonishing 83 points this week for the Miami Heat against the Washington Wizards. But some folks still can’t let go of how he got to that mark in the final minutes to surpass Kobe Bryant’s total of 81 points.
And that’s especially true in Los Angeles with the Lakers.
On the night that Bam passed Kobe, Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter hilariously called it a “rather melancholy footnote in NBA history.” That seems rather harsh for the second-higehst scoring game in NBA history, doesn’t it?
The shade continued on the local Lakers telecast on Thursday night when Los Angeles hosted the Chicago Bulls.
Luka Dončić had a phenomenal game, scoring 51 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing 9 assists. With the outcome well and truly decided with a Lakers victory, Luka decided to take an intentional foul so he could pull himself from the game with just under 2 minutes to play.
Lakers announcers Bill MacDonald and Stu Lantz immediately then threw a little shade in the direction of Bam Adebayo by saying that their star wasn’t stat-chasing in the closing stretch.
51 POINTS FOR LUKA, NEEDED ONE MORE ASSIST FOR A TRIPLE DOUBLE BUT HE AINT CHASING NUMBERS ULIKE SOMEONE pic.twitter.com/FZkht6H9gX
— Lakers Empire (@LakersEmpire) March 13, 2026
“He’s not chasing numbers,” MacDonald said. “He’s not chasing that.”
“He’s not chasing numbers,” Lantz repeated.
There are 17 50-point triple doubles in NBA history. That’s an incredibly impressive achievement, but it’s nowhere close to being in the same universe as an 83-point game, which has been done only twice. It’s highly doubtful that there were too many people in the arena on Thursday night that went home disappointed not to see the Lakers go all out to try to get Luka that 10th assist.
Earlier in the evening, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra hit back at critics of his coaching and the determined way that the team tried to get Bam Adebayo as many points as possible, saying he refused to apologize for it. As Max Kellerman theorized, part of the reaction against Bam’s record total comes from fans of Kobe Bryant being upset that he was passed in the record books. Naturally, that might be the most true when it comes to the Lakers franchise.