The Los Angeles Lakers have some great Western Conference Finals performances.
The Los Angeles Lakers have the second-most NBA Championships in league history and are arguably the most decorated team in league history because of the franchise’s star power and multiple championship-winning eras.
The 2019-2020 Lakers were looking to etch their name in the history books as they were on a path to give the franchise championship number 17 to tie the Boston Celtics. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that path has been derailed.
We don’t know if the season is going to continue but what we do know is that if the season was never paused, we would currently be in the Western Conference Finals, likely watching a battle between the two Los Angeles teams.
As we have in the first two rounds, we decided to give our readers something to cure that playoff basketball itch and look back at the five best Western Conference Finals in franchise history.
Los Angeles Lakers best Western Conference Finals: 5. 1972 vs. Milwaukee
A lot of current Laker fans were either not alive or not old enough to remember this 1972 series against the Milwaukee Bucks and on paper, it is not as special as the other four on this list. Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich squared off against future Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a series that went six games.
Although it was not prime Wilt, the battle between Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar was a battle of the most dominant player in the league in the 1960s and the most dominant player of the 1970s. Chamberlain averaged 10.8 points and 19.3 rebounds in 45.8 minutes per game.
Kareem also averaged exactly 45.8 minutes per game and averaged 33.7 points and 17.5 rebounds per game. Kareem was better, but the collective efforts of the Los Angeles Lakers won out.
What places this Western Conference Finals in the top-five, outside of the historic matchup between Kareem and Wilt, is that this was the lone season in which the Jerry West-led Lakers finally got over the hump and won the NBA Championship.
Los Angeles Lakers best Western Conference Finals: 4. 1991 vs. Portland
The 1991 Los Angeles Lakers represented the end of one historic era in basketball history and the beginning of another. It was the last prime season of Magic Johnson’s career as he retired after the season due to him contracting the HIV virus and it was the year that Michael Jordan’s Bulls finally beat the Bad Boy Pistons and won the NBA Championship.
The Lakers may have not beaten Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the NBA Championship but you could argue that they probably should not have even been there. The Lakers were not the best team in the West that season, but Magic’s playoff experience and leadership led the third-seeded Lakers over the first-seeded Portland Trailblazers.
The Lakers were squaring off against a Portland team that had just won 63 games led by Clyde Drexler. Portland defeated the Lakers in three of the five regular-season matchups.
This series only went six games and Game 6 was as dramatic as it could be. With just over 30 seconds left to play and a one-point lead, the Lakers had a chance to score and put the pressure on Portland to hit a three.
The Lakers suffered a shot-clock violation, giving Portland just over 12 seconds with a one-point deficit to push the series to Game 7.
Portland missed the shot, Magic gathered the rebounded and slung the ball to the opposite side of the court. The ball went out of bounds by the Lakers’ basket with 0.1 seconds on the clock, leading to Magic Johnson’s last NBA Finals appearance.
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.
Los Angeles Lakers best Western Conference Finals: 2. 2000 vs. Portland
Poor Portland, two of the franchise’s worst playoff series losses has come at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers. This series had to hurt Blazer fans more than 1991, though, as this series has one of the worst playoff losses in NBA history.
Unlike the matchup nine years earlier, the Los Angeles Lakers were the favorites in this series. They were the first seed in the Western Conference and had the league’s MVP in Shaquille O’Neal as well as an emerging superstar in Kobe Bryant.
It seemed like the Lakers were going to make quick work of the Blazers as well. The Lakers had a 3-1 series lead after four games and were returning home for Game 5 to finish Portland off.
Not so fast. Despite a 31-point, 21-rebound game from Shaq, Rasheed Wallace and Scottie Pippen was able to lead the Blazers to an eight-point victory. Then, in Game 6, despite a 33-point showing from Kobe Bryant, Portland was able to tie the series at three games apiece with a 10-point victory.
Now back in Los Angeles for Game 7, it looked like Portland had the game (and series) all but won in the fourth quarter. Portland entered the quarter with a 13-point lead and was containing the Lakers’ high-powered offense, which only had 58 points heading into the fourth.
Then it fell apart. After extending the lead to 15 with the first shot of the quarter, Portland did not make another basket (although they did make two free throws) until there were less than three minutes in the quarter. In a span of 7:47, the Lakers went on a 17-2 run to tie the game.
The last time the game was tied was when it was 79-79. The Lakers took the lead and ran with it, outscoring Portland 31-13 to win the game, win the series, and move on to win the first of three-straight championships.
Los Angeles Lakers best Western Conference Finals: 1. 2002 vs. Sacramento
There could not have been any other Western Conference Finals series that was number one over the 2002 series against the Sacramento Kings. Not only is this the Lakers’ greatest Western Conference Finals, but it is one of the best in league history and is one of the best overall playoff series ever.
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The Lakers and Kings’ rivalry helped fuel the narrative of this series even further. The Lakers were always the big brother of the Western Conference that the Kings could not get past. This was the year that it was supposed to happen, but Robert Horry and the Lakers thought otherwise.
After winning Game 1 in Sacramento, the Kings took Game 2 at home and Game 3 in Los Angeles to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 was pivotal, it would have given the Kings a 3-1 lead in the series with two of the final three games in Sacramento. It could have essentially decided the series.
The Kings had a 14-point lead heading into halftime of Game 4 and led the Lakers by two points with 11.8 seconds left in the game. Everyone knows what happened then.
Kobe missed the running floater, Shaq got the rebound and uncharacteristically missed the putback two. With two seconds left, Vlade Divac smacked the ball away from the basket and Robert Horry was in the right place at the right time.
He caught and shot the game-winning three and nailed it. The Lakers avoided a 3-1 series deficit.
It did not get any easier, though, as the Kings got their revenge in Game 5, forcing the Lakers to win back-to-back games if they wanted to three-peat as champions. The Lakers won Game 6 behind two gutsy performances from Shaq and Kobe.
Shaq scored 41 with 17 rebounds while Kobe scored 31.
Game 7 was as dramatic as it gets. Mike Bibby tied the game with two clutch free throws with eight seconds left and Robert Horry was almost the hero again. Shaq missed a turnaround jumper and Horry had a chance to make the tip-in with one second remaining but didn’t put enough on it and clanked front rim.
The overtime period started back and forth and with a minute and a half remaining the Lakers went on a run. The scored six consecutive uncontested points and walked away with a 112-106 win, on the road, in overtime, in Game 7.