These days, they don’t need 81 to get it done

The Toronto Raptors showed up in Staples Center on Tuesday, reminding everyone of one thing and one thing only: Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game against them two seasons ago.

Little as some of them like to be reminded of it.

“You’re asking me to comment on a game he had three years ago?” exclaimed Toronto Coach Sam Mitchell in wonderment before holding Bryant to 34 in the Lakers’ 117-108 victory.

Not that Mitchell could have been surprised since it came up when he was here last season and will for as long as he brings Raptors teams here.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, even if they may not have been as much fun for Lakers fans as they seem in retrospect . . .

It was Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006, when Bryant ascended to a level even he hadn’t reached, scoring 55 points in the second half, after the Raptors had gone ahead by 18, to bring the Lakers back to win.

“He went off,” said Darrick Martin, one of four Raptors left from that team. “You could see it in his face, he wasn’t going to pass and he was going to try to will his team to victory and he did.

“I think you could say we got caught watching because some of the shots he was taking, you’d let him take 10 times out of 10 and they just happened to be going in.

“I remember, he pulled up for two or three threes, right at the hash [the mark on the sideline 28 feet from the baseline] and we were like, ‘You can shoot that all day.’

“And they went in. So like, wow.”

It was second in NBA history only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game and left the league agog.

“I was actually calling people up on the phone to make sure they were watching it,” said Allen Iverson, then a Philadelphia 76er, “cause I watched the game from beginning to end.”

In the bad news for the Lakers, that’s who they were then, a team hoping Bryant could rise to superhero exploits.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know how I did it,” Bryant said. “It was really tiring. It was really tiring. I’m just thankful I don’t have to anymore.”

Their 122-104 win that night ended a two-game losing streak and left them at 22-19. They finished 45-37, then blew a 3-1 lead over Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs with Bryant torched nationwide for not shooting more in Game 7.

It’s who the Lakers were last season, too, and who they figured to be this season, which figured to be their last with Bryant who had had it.

In the best possible news for the Lakers, that’s not how it turned out and they’re no longer that team.

Bryant averaged 43 points that January, the highest-scoring month of his career, becoming synonymous throughout the league with the words “shot attempt,” taking 30 a game.

Now he takes 20 a game with a team that has a chance to do something even if he doesn’t turn into the stuff of legends nightly.

“Well, we hope it makes it a lot easier on him and lengthens his career, obviously,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “But the other thing is, most coaches will tell you and most pundits of basketball like you [press] guys . . . usually when you have five people involved, the team plays better.”

Of course, at this precise moment, Bryant’s infinitely better Lakers have hit a lull.

Having won 16 of 18 since the Pau Gasol trade was announced, they had their bubble burst Sunday by Sacramento and won Tuesday without returning to greatness.

Involving his teammates, Bryant did make sure to put it away, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter rather than letting his teammates handle things as he did against the Kings.

Ironically or not, with Bryant’s role reduced to mere superstar, this is his best shot at a most valuable player award in his 12 seasons, rather than merely having “MVP” chanted by his fans when he shoots free throws.

And the league is still agog.

“Some people just have it in their blood, in their DNA where they just want to be the best,” Mitchell said. “But that’s rare. You start talking about Kobe Bryant, you start putting him in a class of people like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan and Larry Bird and those type players.”

So much for this homestand with the Lakers off for four difficult road games. Their greatness remains in question, but now they’re all involved in its pursuit.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com