73 Wins! Playoff Bracket!

"We won! We made history!"

On April 19, 1998, the Lakers players celebrated with wild abandon!

Amid the Lakers players' laughter and cheers, Kobe and O'Neal hoisted their head coach, Silver Fox Harris, high into the air.

February belonged to the Lakers, March belonged to the Jazz, and all of April belonged to the world's celebration!

The first thing every fan did upon waking up was open the newspaper and check the Lakers' win total!

After the Lakers defeated the Jazz to reach 64 wins and 6 losses, the rest of their schedule was smooth sailing!

Harris rotated the lineup while ensuring everyone maintained excellent physical reserves, harvesting wins throughout April. They won 9 of their final 12 games!

Those 9 wins had come while Harris was trying to adjust the team's form and drastically reduce the starters' minutes! If they had gone all out, the Lakers might very well have won 75 games that season!

But 73 wins were already great enough!

A historical record!

A new legend!

At the Great Western Forum, before countless media outlets, the Lakers defeated the Mavericks. As their final regular-season game, it drew far more attention than any other team's game.

Confetti drifted down from the Forum's ceiling, while the giant screen played the season's many unbelievable moments.

Kobe pointing one hand toward the sky—the footage from his 81-point night.

O'Neal crushing the other four great centers and ascending as king of kings.

Kobe's game-winning fadeaway three!

Kobe celebrating without even watching the ball, with Jordan and Pippen in the background.

Kobe's quintuple-double!

The team's 34-game winning streak!

The record for the highest-scoring half in history!

Game after game, the Lakers had ground out 73 wins on the NBA's grandest stage!

Unprecedented!

Covered in glory! This regular season belonged to the Lakers!

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