It was just one exhibition game, but Kobe Bryant scored 27 points Thursday night.

After the ruptured Achilles and then the broken leg … I wasn’t sure he would score 27 again in a backyard game, let alone against an NBA team.

Go to the video.

Doesn’t Kobe pretty much look like Kobe is supposed to look? Especially those flat-footed jumpers from the perimeter. You could run tape from 2008 and not see any difference. (Well, aside from all of his teammates.) He was 10-for-23 from the floor and 7-for-13 from the line, and he can and will do better than that. The Lakers lost by 33 by they were only minus-six with Kobe on the floor.

A competent Kobe would be big for the league and even bigger for the Lakers.

It seems unlikely they will contend (and you can already write off Steve Nash, who is so frail he can’t carry his bags to his car) … but if Kobe can average 20-plus …

In 30 games, he could pass Michael Jordan on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. And Kobe would like that very much, thank you.

That would put him No. 3 all-time, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone, and they probably cannot be caught — unless the repaired and renewed Kobe can average 20 for the next four seasons, which would put him past Malone and very close to Kareem.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

For the moment, the great news is that Kobe can still score in the NBA. That makes the league and the Lakers more interesting.