The Bucks played the Lakers only once during the historic 33-game winning streak, losing 112-105, and aimed to end the streak in Milwaukee.
It was about the team of Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich, and how the Lakers were mowing down opponents by an average margin of 16 points. It was about a run no one had seen before in major professional sports in the United States and about how the Lakers were on the verge of capturing their first championship since moving to Los Angeles in 1960.
Jim Cleamons, a Lakers rookie at the time, recalled that they were getting messages that the Bucks “had revenge in their hearts and minds.”The Lakers won a record-setting 33rd game in a row on Jan. 7, 1972. A look back on the 50th anniversary of the longest winning streak in team sports. The Lakers defeated the Bucks 112-105 in Game 11 of the winning streak, at the Forum in Inglewood on Nov. 21, 1971.
“I go back, and I remember that there was a least a half-dozen games we should have lost,” Riley said. “But somehow we won because of the greatness of us and Chamberlain and those players.” It remains the longest winning streak in American professional sports, something Cleamons said he doesn’t “want to see broken during my lifetime.”