54 years ago today, on January 7, 1972, the Los Angeles Lakers walked into Atlanta with the weight of history already on their shoulders, and left with it firmly in their hands. By demolishing the Hawks 134–90, the Lakers secured their 33rd consecutive victory, a mark that remains the longest winning streak in major professional sports.
The final score reads like a typographical error, but it was very real. The Lakers led by double digits early, kept pouring it on, and turned a record chase into a rout. The box score captures just how complete the performance was: Los Angeles scored 134 while holding Atlanta to 90, extending a run that had started two months earlier and had transformed every night into a rolling referendum on whether the streak could possibly continue.
The streak itself had already crossed beyond basketball. NBA.com notes that when Los Angeles reached win No. 27 on December 22, they surpassed the 1916 New York Giants’ 26-game streak, which had long stood as the major-league benchmark in American pro sports.
By the time the Lakers reached Atlanta in early January, they weren’t just chasing an NBA record, they were chasing immortality.
The context makes the feat even more staggering. This wasn’t a modern schedule with charter luxuries and sports science managing every mile. This was the early 1970s, with a team driven by a Hall-of-Fame spine: Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Gail Goodrich, coached by Bill Sharman. The Lakers didn’t just win 33 straight, they converted the streak into a championship season, finishing 69–13 and ultimately winning the NBA title.
And yet, even legends don’t get to freeze time. Two nights after the Atlanta blowout, the streak ended in Milwaukee, as the Lakers lost 120–104 to the Bucks on January 9, 1972.
That’s what makes January 7 feel like the true monument date. The streak didn’t end in Atlanta, but it peaked there, with the 33rd win arriving in emphatic fashion, the kind of scoreboard domination that announced the Lakers weren’t merely surviving the pressure. They were thriving in it.
More than half a century later, teams still chase hot months and historic runs, and every time a contender starts stacking wins, the same number hangs over the conversation like a ceiling: 33. On that night in Atlanta, the Lakers didn’t just beat the Hawks. They built a record that the rest of major pro sports is still trying to reach.
