A brief history of the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers rivalry
By Adam Maynes
The biggest rivalry in Arizona sports, Phoenix versus Los Angeles, the Suns and Lakers renew their rivalry in 2018, but this time with a new twist: LeBron James is at the center of it all.
The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers encompass the two sides of the biggest, most hate-filled rivalry in Arizona sports. No two professional teams have more history, bigger moments, more heartbreak, and more angst than the Suns and Lakers. Facing off 245 times prior to 2018-19, the Lakers hold a 139-106 lead in the regular season head-to-head match up and a 38-24 playoff lead as well.
Phoenix has never held a lead in the regular season head-to-head as the early years of the rivalry was dominated by L.A. while the Suns found their footing.
Los Angeles swept Phoenix 6-0 in the Suns’ inaugural season, although Phoenix battled to a 3-3 regular season series tie in 1969-70 which led to the two franchise’s first playoff bout, an exciting Western Division Semifinals series in which the surprising Suns pushed the Lakers to the brink, taking a 3-1 lead before dropping three straight in decisive manner.
Phoenix Suns
Phoenix’s 2-1, 3-1, and 3-2 series leads are the only leads in that series (in terms of the overall head-to-head record) that the Suns have ever held.
From 1970 through the end of the 1983-84 season, the two teams stayed very competitive relative to one another with the series results finished 45-39, Los Angeles, over that stretch. The Lakers won 5 regular season series’ overall while the Suns won 4 and the teams tied an additional 5.
The playoffs over that stretch though were a different story as Los Angeles began a decade of playoff dominance that would frustrate the Suns and break the hearts of the Phoenix fanbase year after year.
While the two teams tied the regular season series at 3, Los Angeles dominated the Suns in the 1980 Semifinals winning the series in 5.
The Lakers won the 1981-82 regular season series 4-2, then swept the Suns in four games, again, in the Semifinals.
In 1983-84, once again the two teams tied the regular season series at 3, but once again Los Angeles handled Phoenix soundly ending the Suns’ 1984 NBA Finals hopes with a six-game Western Conference Finals victory.
1985 was one of complete Los Angeles dominance as they strolled through the season series 5-1, then swept Phoenix out of the first round of the playoffs in three.
After several middling years the Suns closed out the decade by finally reaching competitive prominence and tied Los Angeles in the regular season 3-3. The Lakers, however, were far more experienced than the upstart Suns, and swept them in the Western Conference Finals for the second time in the decade, 4-0.
A telling sign though emerged from the wreckage of that sweep: The Suns were in every game, never losing by more than 8 points, and learning the playoff grit to pull off a future upset.