1950–51 Minneapolis Lakers season

(lost to Royals 1–3)

The 1950–51 Minneapolis Lakers season was the franchise's third season in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In 1950–51, the NBA reduced the number of teams to 11. The two-time defending champion Lakers continued to dominate by winning the Western Division with a 44–24 record. However, one of their games played that season saw them be inadvertently involved in a failed rigging going on by NBA referee Sol Levy on November 4 (which became their first win of the season) by having Minneapolis beat the Washington Capitols (who would later fold operations altogether during the 1950–51 season, reducing the team pool to 10 during the season) in the first of six games of mixed results for Levy attempting to rig the season in his favor. Levy would later be arrested and then be tried as an accomplice in his involvement in the CCNY point-shaving scandal in 1951. In addition to that failed fixed game, this season would also be notable for an infamous match played less than a month later on November 22, 1950 against the Fort Wayne Pistons, which saw the Pistons holding onto the ball for a vast majority of the match in order to not allow the Lakers' star center, George Mikan, a chance to dominate them in the paint, which worked too well in Fort Wayne's favor to the point where it resulted in the lowest-scoring match in NBA history with a 19–18 victory favoring the Pistons (and subsequently resulted in the Lakers breaking a record previously held by the Detroit Falcons for the lowest scoring effort in a BAA/NBA match, albeit by force instead of by accidental intention), which resulted in spectators of the match feeling like they wouldn't be interested in the sport of basketball at all if that match was a reflection of what it truly was and subsequently led to the creation of the shot clock a few seasons later in order to help make sure the NBA never had another game like that ever again in its history.

In the playoffs, the Lakers needed three games to eliminate the Indianapolis Olympians in the first round. In the Western Finals, the Lakers took Game 1, but were ultimately defeated for the championship by the Rochester Royals, who came back to win the next three games. As a result, this became the first season where the Lakers failed to win a championship under the Lakers name.