My Stats Prove The Los Angeles Lakers Were The Best NBA Team To Lose A Playoff Series 1-4 In Modern History
Harry How. Getty Images.Remember when Darvin Ham claimed the Lakers didn't get swept by the Nuggets in 2023 after losing the series zero games to four? That even if they technically did get swept in the wins/losses category it wasn't indicative of their play on the court? Well, the 2024 series rematch sure felt the same way, except this time for a team that lost 1-4. Which led me to wonder…
Are the 2024 Los Angeles Lakers the BEST NBA playoff team to lose a series 1-4?
This might sound like the saddest thing to be proud about after losing a playoff series. But at least not as sad as being the best 0-4 team ever! And you know what? I'm going to go on a limb and say it's true. At least for just the series itself, the Lakers played the best series in modern NBA history for any team that lost 1-4. And I have some stats to make my case.
Exhibit A - The Lakers are actually the only team in the 2024 playoffs to go undefeated at 5-0 (if games only lasted the first half)
In some ways every individual game of this series was like watching a Marvel movie for the Nuggets. Act 1 - "Oh no, bad guys doing bad things. We are doomed". Act 2 - "We tried but it's hopeless". Act 3 (sometime in the second half): "Unexpected but totally expected miracle happens". For the Nuggets, that miracle would be Jokic, MPJ, Murray, and Murray.
The Lakers getting off to a hot start in every game was wild. By game 5 my dumb brain was legit wondering if the right move for the Lakers was to let the Nuggets go up big in the first half. I don't know. Maybe there's some sort of masochist psychological disorder the Nuggets were getting off to at half-time. I'd say the Lakers ran out of gas but to be honest, even LeBron seemed to have most of his endurance down the stretch of these games.
Whatever it was, the Lakers just couldn't hold their leads. But let me tell you. They had the BEST leads. They couldn't keep them. But they were the best. And I'll prove it. Looking back since 2002 (pretty much as far back as available public play-by-play data will let me take it) I pulled every team that lost a series 1-4 and grabbed their largest lead of each of the four games they lost. Adding all four figures together scientifically measures which team was the best at getting leads. And - yes - the best at shitting them away.
Whatever. The important thing is the 2024 Lakers lead the way with 53 total points in this…. up and coming measure of analytics. Here's the master list of any 1-4 series losing team since 2002 who totaled 35 or higher along with individual game largest leads:
But the Lakers weren't just great at taking early leads. They were great at holding them too (in the first half).
Exhibit B - The Lakers trailed for a total of 9:32 in all combined first halves of the series
You just scrolled past every 1-4 playoff series losing NBA team since 2002 sorted by how much total game time they were losing the game in the first half. This is the type of shit I spend time from my actual job to write code to figure out. And just for the record the max here for five games is 120 minutes. The Lakers' 9:32 was about half of the next best first half losing playoff team - the 2002 Spurs. Just an absurd figure when compared to their contemporary 1-4 colleagues. Especially the 2019 Magic at the bottom. 96:22 is rough.
Lastly, I can't think of another series a team lost by two game winning shots in the final two seconds. So with all that said, I think it's safe to coronate this Lakers team as the best playoff team to lose a series 1-4. Congrats! If Darvin Ham wants to say they didn't really lose the series 1-4 like he did when they (didn't) get swept last season I say let him have at it.
Only thing left now is to see where the Lakers stand in best teams who went 1-12 vs the same opponent in a 13-game span. Make fun of the Lakers all you want - I bet they're #1 here too.