2010 Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles won eight fewer games than the year before, finishing 57-25, but still took the top seed in the West. Ron Artest replaced Trevor Ariza and gave the team a tougher perimeter defender for the matchups ahead. The path led back to Boston, the team that had beaten the Lakers two years earlier.

The Finals went the distance. Game 7 was a defensive struggle that the Lakers won 83-79. Bryant had a miserable shooting night, going 6-for-24, but he grabbed 15 rebounds and made his free throws down the stretch. Gasol controlled the glass with 18 boards. Artest scored 20 and hit a late three that sealed it.

Bryant won his second consecutive Finals MVP and his fifth title overall. It was also the first time Boston lost a Game 7 in the Finals in franchise history.

The win settled the rivalry for that era. Boston had taken 2008. Los Angeles took 2010, and did it the hard way, in seven, against the team it least wanted to lose to.

The starting five was Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum. Phil Jackson coached the group with Lamar Odom as the primary bench scorer.

This was title number 2 in a Los Angeles Lakers run that stretched across consecutive or near-consecutive seasons. Repeat winners carried continuity from one year to the next.

The full roster ran deeper than the headline names. Role players who mattered included Sasha Vujacic (made the clinching free throws in Game 7).

The 2010 champion had to survive four playoff rounds in a 30-team league. Depth and matchups mattered as much as star power, especially on the road in the conference finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers share a lineage with other banners from 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2020. Compare those seasons on the franchise hub to see how the roster and style changed between title runs.

Looking back, the 2009-10 Lakers repeated, beating the Celtics in seven games in a rematch of the 2008 Finals. Kobe Bryant won his second straight Finals MVP, though he shot 6-for-24 in the deciding game and won it on the glass and at the line. Ron Artest, brought in to defend, hit the dagger three in Game 7.

For the full roster beyond the featured starters, see the table on this page. For other Los Angeles Lakers titles, use the franchise hub linked below.