The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the select few organizations that don't quite have the luxury of taking their foot off of the proverbial pedal from time to time. No matter what condition the franchise is in, a strong showing against the Lakers is a legacy-builder, especially when playing in Los Angeles.
It's also the simple reality of being a 17-time NBA champion that other teams are going to view you as a rival for the simple reason that you've long stood in their way.
The Lakers know this as well as any organization in professional sports. Unfortunately, despite their sustained brilliance, there is a long list of examples of teams actually managing to get the best of Los Angeles—several times over.
Entering the 2024-25 NBA season, these five teams have the longest active winning streaks against the Lakers.
Tied for the fourth-longest losing streak on this list, thus rounding the list out to five, is the recent string of unfortunate results against the Miami Heat. Los Angeles and Miami, which met in the 2020 NBA Finals, have turned the proverbial tables since that series.
The Heat have now won two straight games against the Lakers, with a record of 6-2 over the past eight encounters between the two sides.
One of the losses was especially heartbreaking, as Los Angeles fell 108-107 on November 6, 2023 in Miami. The Lakers outscored the Heat 28-18 in the fourth quarter, but ultimately failed to finish the process of closing the distance and securing the victory.
Miami then picked up a 110-96 win in Los Angeles to create the two-game winning streak on January 3, 2024.
One of several rivals to appear on this list, the Phoenix Suns have gotten the best of the Lakers in recent encounters. Fortunately, this one is actually a bit easier to stomach than others, as the back-to-back losses followed a dominant run in this rivalry by the Lakers.
Prior to losing two games to Phoenix in January and February of 2024, Los Angeles had actually won five consecutive games against their long-time foes.
The Lakers and Suns' rivalry dates back to 1970, when the two teams first met in the postseason. They've encountered one another in 13 postseason series overall, with Los Angeles prevailing on eight of those occasions.
That doesn't make consecutive losses to a bitter rival acceptable, but it at least softens the blow. Or so we tell ourselves.
Yet another rival appears on this list, as Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors gave the Lakers fits in 2023-24. Los Angeles actually eliminated Golden State from the playoffs in 2022-23, but since then, it's been all Warriors.
The Warriors have now won three consecutive games against the Lakers, with the Los Angeles defense allowing points whenever Golden State wanted them.
The Warriors' wins over the Lakers have been by scores of 128-110, 128-121, and 134-120. It's been embarrassing performance after embarrassing performance by Los Angeles' defense, and Golden State has exploited the poor performances at every turn.
In 2024-25, the Lakers' defense will need to turn things around if they have any hope of snapping this three-game losing streak against a fellow postseason hopeful.
This one stings for an obvious reason: The four straight losses only track the regular season. In addition to going 0-4 in the regular season against the Denver Nuggets since January of 2023, the Lakers have been unable to overcome their rivals in the playoffs.
Including the postseason, the Nuggets have won 12 of the past 13 games that they've played against the Lakers.
The regular season losing streak is difficult enough to stomach, but the postseason failures are what hurt the most. Los Angeles led all five games at halftime during the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, yet Denver ultimately prevailed in four of them.
The rivalry may slot in at No. 2, but the Nuggets' dominance of the Lakers is, by far, the most disheartening of any team on the list.
It's hard to be the kings of California when the team with that same name has been dominating your head-to-head matchups. Since the Sacramento Kings snapped the Lakers' four-game head-to-head winning streak on August 13, 2020, it's been a lopsided rivalry in the Northern California team's favor.
Sacramento has now won five consecutive games against Los Angeles with a 12-4 record over the past 16 meetings between the two in-state rivals.
The worst part of the Lakers' struggles against the Kings is that the past three games haven't been particularly close. Sacramento has won those outings by scores of 125-110, 130-120, and 120-107.
If the Lakers are going to reclaim the state, then snapping the five-game losing streak against the Kings must be the top priority.