Lakers coach Luke Walton called the Lakers’ 122-73 loss to the Mavericks yesterday “embarrassing for us as a team, for us as an organization.”
Um, yeah.
At 49 points, it was the most lopsided loss in franchise history. Moreover, it came to 15-29 Dallas, the NBA’s fourth worst team.
The league hadn’t seen a loss that big to a team that bad in 24 years.
Here’s every game ever decided by at least 45 points, plotted by scoring difference and the victor’s full-season win percentage (or to date for the Mavericks and Warriors, who beat the Trail Blazers by 45 earlier this season). The Lakers’ loss yesterday is marked in purple:
Here are more details of similar games, which appear in the black box:
| Game | Difference | Winner’s record |
| March 18, 1972: Portland Trail Blazers 133, New York Knicks 86 | 47 | 18-64 (.220) |
| February 20, 1976: Chicago Bulls 130, Portland Trail Blazers 74 | 56 | 24-58 (.293) |
| January 2, 1993: Sacramento Kings 154, Philadelphia 76ers 98 | 56 | 25-57 (.305) |
| December 29, 1992: Sacramento Kings 139, Dallas Mavericks 81 | 58 | 25-57 (.305) |
| January 22, 2017: Dallas Mavericks 122, Los Angeles Lakers 73 | 49 | 15-29 (.341) |
| February 1, 1983: Chicago Bulls 129, Houston Rockets 76 | 53 | 28-54 (.341) |
| February 27, 1992: Charlotte Hornets 136, Philadelphia 76ers 84 | 52 | 31-51 (.378) |
The Lakers’ loss isn’t the worst in NBA history. Four teams have lost to worse teams by bigger margins, and a couple lost by more to barely worse teams.
But, barring a Dallas turnaround, the league hasn’t seen a loss like this in quite some time.