The Rec Room: 24 Lakers classics on YouTube to tide you through the sports shutdown

After missing the playoffs the last six seasons and compiling one of the worst records in the league during that time, this was the season the Lakers fans had been dreaming about.

When the NBA season was suspended on March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lakers had a 5½-game lead atop the Western Conference and were just three games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the league.

When or if they will be able to finish their season remains uncertain. Until then, and with everyone marooned at home, here are 24 Lakers Classics for the Quarantine. These aren’t necessarily a ranking of the greatest moments in team history but simply a list of games easily accessible in their entirety on YouTube.

Unfortunately, many complete games prior to 1980 aren’t available online so while you can look up highlights of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, their games didn’t make this list.

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The Lakers-Celtics rivalry dominates this list but perhaps no Lakers win is as satisfying as Magic Johnson’s “junior sky hook” to beat the Celtics at Boston Garden to give the Lakers a 3-1 series lead. They would close out Boston in Game 6.

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With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sidelined because of a severely sprained ankle, Johnson, a rookie, started at center, played all five positions and finished with 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one block to clinch the first of his five titles.

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Before 1985, the Lakers and Celtics had met in the NBA Finals eight times and each time Boston won. After the Celtics blew out the Lakers in Game 1 148-114 in “the Memorial Day massacre,” the Lakers won four of the next five and closed out the Celtics in Boston Garden in what many Lakers fans consider their sweetest victory.

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Down 16 in the fourth quarter at home, L.A. ended the game on a 29-9 run capped by Kobe Bryant’s lob to Shaquille O’Neal, a signature moment for one of the NBA’s greatest tandems, and the catalyst for the run to a three-peat.

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Not the most aesthetically pleasing game but when Bryant gets his statue outside of Staples Center, the visual of him standing on the scorer’s table with his arms outstretched after the Lakers came back from a 13-point deficit in the clincher will be in the running.

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James Worthy became “Big Game James” by forcing a Game 7 with 28 points and 9 rebounds. In this Game 7 classic, the Finals MVP was even better, with the only triple-double of his Hall of Fame career (36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists).

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Robert Horry earned the nickname “Big Shot Bob” for a number of dramatic game-winners, but none as dramatic as his buzzer-beater to salvage the Lakers’ hopes of continuing their quest for a three-peat in 2002.
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Derek Fisher will always be synonymous with “0.4” as the Lakers point guard needed just 0.4 seconds to launch a game-winner to beat the Spurs and help the Lakers return to the NBA Finals.

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The number 81 is as synonymous with Bryant’s career as 8 or 24. The Lakers needed all of those points to complete a comeback from an 18-point, second-half deficit.

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The 21-year Bryant, playing with a severely sprained ankle that caused him to miss Game 3, took over after O’Neal fouled out late in Game 4, scoring 28 points, including three crucial baskets in overtime, to give the Lakers a 120-118 win.

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In his final NBA game, Bryant scored an NBA season-high 60 points and outscored the entire Jazz team 23-21 in the fourth quarter to lead the Lakers to a 101-96 win, becoming the oldest player in league history to score 60 or more points.

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Johnson’s return to the NBA after testing positive for HIV the previous fall is one of the most emotional moments in team history. Johnson had 25 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds and was the game’s MVP.

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One month before Bryant dropped 81 points on the Raptors, he scored 62 points through three quarters against the Mavericks. Bryant outscored the eventual Western Conference champions, 62-61, before sitting out the fourth quarter.

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While most Lakers fans will identify Fisher with his 0.4 shot, his finest moment with the Lakers came five years later when he made a game-tying three-pointer with 4.6 seconds left to send this game into overtime before hitting the game-winning three-pointer in OT.

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With the game and the series tied, everyone at Staples Center knew Bryant was going to get the ball with 3.5 seconds left. Though Bryant missed the shot, Ron Artest was there to put up the game-winner and save the Lakers’ season.

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On the last night of the regular season, Kobe knocked down a shot over Ruben Patterson, who had nicknamed himself “the Kobe Stopper,” to send the game into overtime, and gave the Lakers the win in double OT by draining the game-winner at the buzzer.

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The Celtics would go on to win these Finals in seven, but the “Showtime” Lakers never looked better than they did in blowing out the Celtics 137-104 at the Forum. Johnson led the way with 14 points, 11 rebounds … and 21 assists.

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One of the most indelible images of Bryant’s career is his reaction after making a buzzer-beater at Staples Center to give the Lakers a 3-1 series lead. He yelled, pounded his heart and pulled his jersey across his chest as Lakers fans celebrated.

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After losing their first and only game of the 2001 postseason, O’Neal nearly pulled off the first quadruple-double in Finals history with 28 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists and 8 blocks.

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At 36 years old and 255 pounds, and four years after retiring from the Lakers the first time, Johnson returned as a power forward, not a point guard, but he was still a playmaker, finishing with 19 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds off the bench.

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One of Bryant’s favorite places to play was Madison Square Garden and on this night he had a performance for the record books, scoring 61 points to set the MSG scoring record and lead the Lakers to a 126-117 win.

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In Michael Jordan’s last game against Bryant and the Lakers, Bryant set a Lakers record with 42 points in the first half, including eight three-pointers, and finished with 55 points.

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Six months after beating the Celtics in the NBA Finals, Johnson returned to the Boston Garden to add salt to the wound when he sank an improbable bank-shot buzzer-beater to defeat the Celtics 115-114.

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The Lakers made sure their last game at Boston Garden was a memorable one even if the teams on the parquet floor were no longer championship contenders. Nick Van Exel capped a 29-point, 10-assist performance with a game-winning basket at the buzzer.