The 31-year-old Bryant is 28 points behind Jerry West on the club's all-time scoring list after recording 19 points and hitting the go-ahead basket with 7.3 seconds left to give Los Angeles (37-11) a 90-89 win at Boston on Sunday.
Bryant, who's been bothered by a stiff ankle of late, has 25,164 points during his stellar 14-year career - all with Los Angeles. He's averaging 28.0 per game this season.
"I think it's a remarkable thing," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who needs one victory to pass Pat Riley for the top spot on the Lakers' all-time coaching list with 534. "He's pursuing it, and he's aggressive as an offensive ballplayer and he's going to be scoring for a while."
Though Bryant went 8 of 20 from the field Sunday, the Lakers held Boston to 16 fourth-quarter points to improve to 5-2 on the eight-game trip. Andrew Bynum finished with 19 points with 11 rebounds and helped the Western Conference-leading Lakers outscore the Celtics 18-0 in the paint in the final period.
As Los Angeles looks to conclude an already successful trip on a positive note at Memphis, Bryant has a chance to bounce back from Sunday's performance against a team he's victimized with a big night once this season. Bryant scored 41 points and went 19 for 30 from the field in the Lakers' 114-98 home win over the Grizzlies on Nov. 6.
"For the most part, we played pretty good defense on Kobe, but he hit tough shots,'' Memphis Rudy Gay said after scoring 22 points in that contest.
Bryant's averaging 33.0 points and shooting 51.5 percent in his last six games at Memphis, highlighted by a 60-point effort in a 121-119 Lakers victory there March 22, 2007
