After the Los Angeles Lakers fell meekly to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, 129-118, it’s easy to forget there was a time when the Purple and Gold always seemed to beat the Nuggets.
In April of 1987, the Lakers were streaking toward the playoffs, looking to win their fourth NBA championship of the decade, when they faced a Nuggets team led by a 1980s scoring machine named Alex English.
English got his, as he usually did, leading all scorers with 29 points.
But Magic Johnson had the last laugh. He tallied a triple-double with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to lead Showtime to a 126-118 victory.
Much like today’s Lakers, those Nuggets played very little defense, so their games against L.A. throughout the decade were high-scoring affairs, with the Lakers usually winning.
Thanks to performances like this one, Johnson ended up winning his first regular-season MVP award, and when the Lakers claimed the world championship that summer versus the Boston Celtics, he collected his third NBA Finals MVP.
