1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers season

During the 1971–72 season the Los Angeles Lakers won their first title since moving to Los Angeles. The Lakers beat the New York Knicks in five games to win the title, after going 69–13 during the regular-season, a record that stood for 24 seasons until the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls went 72–10. During the regular season, they would also go on a current-standing NBA record 33-game winning streak. The team went on to win 81 regular season and playoff games overall, a record that would last for 14 years until Boston Celtics did it in 1986.

The team's season roster is featured in the video games NBA 2K16 and NBA 2K17.

Since moving to Los Angeles, the Lakers were repeatedly foiled by the Boston Celtics in their attempts to capture an NBA title. The Lakers lost the championship to them six times in eight years. In 1970, with the aging Celtics out of title contention, the Lakers lost in the NBA finals to the New York Knicks. In 1971, after losing Jerry West to a season ending injury in February, they lost in the Western Conference finals to the powerful Milwaukee Bucks.

Going into the 1971–72 season, many experts thought the chance at a championship had passed for this aging team. Star players Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West were all in their 30s, and had all missed significant time due to injuries in the prior two seasons. The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, led by superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared to be starting a new NBA dynasty. But new coach Bill Sharman still believed the Lakers had the talent to contend. He introduced strict conditioning drills and implemented a running fast break based offense. He re-tooled Wilt Chamberlain's game to focus on defense, rebounding, and jump starting the fast break with quick outlet passes to guards Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. The only casualty of this system was the aging Baylor, who could not physically handle the up tempo practices and offense and retired 9 games into the season. He was replaced at small forward by Jim McMillian who played at a near all star level.