On This Date on January 9, 1972
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The Los Angeles Lakers historic 33-game winning streak comes to an end with a 120-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at the Mecca. The Bucks, who were the NBA’s reigning champions were led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who had a game-high 39 points. The 33-game winning streak is the longest ever among the four major professional sports. The Lakers last previous loss had been on Halloween against the Golden State Warriors.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 1960, the Lakers were the NBA ultimate bride’s maid, losing in the NBA Finals eight times, seven of which came against the arch-rival Boston Celtics. With many of the Lakers best players including Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor on the wrong side of 30, there was a sense that their window of opportunity was closing as they began the season under new coach Bill Sharman. Through their first nine games, the Lakers were off to a solid 6-3 start, following a 109-105 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Forum on Halloween. Following that game, Elgin Baylor who had been one of the team’s top players since they had played in Minneapolis announced his retirement due to his bad knees.
The loss of the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer seemed to light a fire under Los Angeles as they Baltimore Bullets 110-106 to start the streak on November 5th. Some key early wins included a 103-96 home win over the New York Knicks on November 7th, the final game of three games in three nights. The Knicks had beaten the Lakers in a hard-fought seven-game series in the 1970 NBA Finals. On November 21st the Lakers beat the reigning NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks 112-105 at the Forum. This was their first meeting against Milwaukee since Western Conference Finals, which the Lakers lost in five games.
After winning all 14 games they played in November, the Lakers streak continued in December as they began flirting with history. On December 8th the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets on the road 110-105 to equal the New York Knicks 18-game winning streak in the 1969/70 season. Two days later in another night of three straight games, the Lakers had their lone overtime win against the Phoenix Suns, 126-117 at the Forum to equal the Bucks record-breaking 20-game winning streak set one year earlier. Two nights later, the Lakers set a new record by beating the Atlanta Hawks 104-95. The winning streak reached 27 games on December 22th with a 127-120 win over the Bullets, giving Los Angeles the longest winning streak among the four major sports.
The New Year began with the Lakers streak still rampaging, as it reached 30 games with a 122-106 win over the Seattle Supersonics on December 30th. With wins over the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks in January streak reached its zenith of 33 games as they went into a Sunday showdown with the defending champions in Milwaukee. The Lakers got off to a good start and held a 28-26 lead at the end of the first quarter. However, the rest of the way it was all Bucks as they took the lead in the second quarter and never looked back, winning 120-104.
The 33-game winning streak lasted 65 days, with the Lakers average margin of victory being 17 points, as 23 of 33 games were decided by double digits, including eight decided by more than 20 points. Sparked by the winning streak the Lakers finished the season with a 69-13 record, which at the time was the best in NBA history. In the playoffs the Lakers would face the Bucks again in the Western Conference Finals, winning in six games. They would go on to finally win their first championship in Los Angeles, beating the Knicks in five games.