Los Angeles Lakers: Best Western Conference Finals in team history
By Jason Reed
Los Angeles Lakers best Western Conference Finals: 3. 1985 vs. Denver
You could pick any one of the teams from the Showtime Lakers era and it will go toe-to-toe against any other all-time great team in NBA history. The 1985-86 team is absolutely in that conversation, as the team was stacked with Hall of Fame talent.
By this point, Magic Johnson was in his prime and while Kareem no longer was, he was still averaging 22 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. This team included James Worthy a year before his prime, Byron Scott near his prime, Michael Cooper in his prime as well as two other Hall of Famers in Jamaal Wilkes and Bob McAdoo.
The talent that this team had was showcased during the Western Conference Finals, where the Lakers absolutely demolished the second-seeded Denver Nuggets. The gap between the best team in the West and the second-best team in the West was apparent.
The Lakers did drop Game 2 to the Nuggets in blowout fashion but killed Denver in almost every other game. They won Game 1 by 17 points, Game 3 by 18 points, Game 4 by four points and Game 5 by 44 points.
Game 5 is the eighth-largest blowout in NBA playoff history and is the third-most points scored by a single team in a playoff game. Magic had 17 points and 19 rebounds while three Lakers (Worthy, Scott, Mike McGee) all scored above 20 points.
Even more importantly, this series paved way for something that the Lakers had never done prior: beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.