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1972–73 Los Angeles Lakers season

NBA professional basketball team season

Field	Value
team	Los Angeles Lakers
end_year	1973
DivisionWin	yes
ConferenceWin	yes
wins	60
losses	22
division	Pacific
division_place	1
conf_place	2
coach	Bill Sharman
arena	The Forum
playoffs	[NBA Finals](1973-nba-playoffs-bracket)
(lost to [Knicks](1972-73-new-york-knicks-season) 1–4)
bbr_team	LAL

(lost to Knicks 1–4)

The 1972–73 Los Angeles Lakers season was the Lakers' 25th season in the NBA and 13th season in Los Angeles.

During the previous season (1971–1972), the Lakers had posted the longest winning streak in NBA history with 33 straight victories. In the 1972 NBA Finals, the Lakers had defeated New York Knicks in five games to win their sixth NBA Championship. However, even though the Lakers managed to make to the NBA Finals for a second consecutive time, they proved unable to repeat as champions. The Knicks defeated them in five games.

Following the season, Wilt Chamberlain retired.

Offseason

Draft picks

Main article: 1972 NBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	School/Club team
2	16	Jim Price	Guard		Louisville

Roster

Regular season

The defending champion Lakers returned intact, albeit another year older. They staged another season long battle for best record in the Western Conference with the Milwaukee Bucks. Both teams ended up with 60–22 records and they split their regular season matchups, winning three games apiece. At the time, the NBA had no tiebreaking formula beyond head-to-head record. In a special league meeting, they attempted to schedule a tiebreaking game between the two teams. However, the players' union intervened and demanded the players be paid an extra 1/82 share of the salaries; the owners objected so ultimately the tie was broken by a coin flip, which was won by Milwaukee.

Season standings

:z – clinched division title :y – clinched division title :x – clinched playoff spot

Game log

1972–73 game log
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82

Playoffs

4–3
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
1
April 17
Golden State
W 101–99
Jim McMillian (37)
Wilt Chamberlain (25)
Jerry West (8)
The Forum
17,505
1–0
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
2
April 19
Golden State
W 104–93
Jerry West (36)
Wilt Chamberlain (20)
Jerry West (6)
The Forum
17,505
2–0
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
3
April 21
@ Golden State
W 126–70
Jim McMillian (28)
Wilt Chamberlain (25)
Jerry West (11)
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena
13,183
3–0
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
4
April 23
@ Golden State
L 109–117
Jerry West (32)
Wilt Chamberlain (16)
Gail Goodrich (7)
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena
8,000
3–1
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
5
April 25
Golden State
W 128–118
Gail Goodrich (44)
Wilt Chamberlain (22)
Jerry West (9)
The Forum
17,505
4–1
-
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
1
May 1
New York
W 115–112
Gail Goodrich (30)
Wilt Chamberlain (20)
Wilt Chamberlain (6)
The Forum
17,505
1–0
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
2
May 3
New York
L 95–99
Jerry West (32)
Wilt Chamberlain (20)
Goodrich, West (5)
The Forum
17,505
1–1
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
3
May 6
@ New York
L 83–87
Jim McMillian (22)
Wilt Chamberlain (13)
Wilt Chamberlain (5)
Madison Square Garden
19,694
1–2
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
4
May 8
@ New York
L 98–103
Goodrich, West (23)
Wilt Chamberlain (19)
Bill Bridges (7)
Madison Square Garden
19,694
1–3
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
5
May 10
New York
L 93–102
Gail Goodrich (28)
Wilt Chamberlain (21)
Jerry West (4)
The Forum
17,505
1–4
-

Awards and records

Jerry West, All-NBA First Team
Jerry West, NBA All-Defensive First Team
Wilt Chamberlain, NBA All-Defensive First Team
Jerry West, NBA All-Star Game
Wilt Chamberlain, NBA All-Star Game
Gail Goodrich, NBA All-Star Game
Jim Price, NBA All-Rookie Team 1st Team

References

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/1973.html 1972–73 Los Angeles Lakers]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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