2003–04 Los Angeles Lakers season

The 2003–04 NBA season was the Lakers' 56th season in the NBA and 44th in the city of Los Angeles. During the offseason, the Lakers signed veteran free agents and former All-Stars Karl Malone and Gary Payton, who were recruited by Superstar center Shaquille O'Neal, plus re-signing free agent Horace Grant. Payton struggled with coach Phil Jackson's triangle offense, which limited his ball-handling and post-up opportunities.

The off-season is notable for seeing Superstar guard Kobe Bryant getting accused of sexual assault in Colorado, which proved to be an ongoing distraction during the season.

The Lake Show started the season 18-3. However, they ran into struggles when Malone went down with a knee injury in December, soon followed by ailments to Shaq and Kobe. The "Big Four" of O'Neal, Bryant, Malone, and Payton played in only 20 games together. Despite all of this, the injury-depleted Lakers still managed a 56–26 record and entered the playoffs as the number 2 seed in the Western Conference.

They defeated a Houston Rockets team featuring Steve Francis and a young Yao Ming in five games in the first round. The second round pitted the Lakers against the defending NBA champions the San Antonio Spurs, who defeated the Lakers in last year's playoffs. Though the Spurs took the first two games, the Lakers won the next four games, including Derek Fisher's miracle shot with 0.4 seconds left in Game 5 (a 74–73 Lakers victory) and a Game 6 88–76 victory at home to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Kevin Garnett-led Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers managed to get through a tough Minnesota team, defeating them in six games to advance to the NBA Finals where they would meet the Detroit Pistons. Though the Lakers were heavily favored to win the title, the heavy-underdog Pistons proved too much for the Lakers as they easily went on to win the series in five games.