Power Ranking the 9 Worst NBA Championship Teams | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers. Regular season record: 57-25 (third in NBA). Won Pacific Division, No. 1 seed, Western Conference.

The 2009-2010 Lakers were coming off a dominant season in which they had won more than 60 games and trounced the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals in June of 2009. This season was one that featured some key changes. Adding Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace) and losing Trevor Ariza were both key additions and subtractions. 

The team's regular season record wasn't great compared to some squads, but the team also endured some injuries to key players such as Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Eventually, the Lakers would meet up with their long-time rival the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. This Celtics team was not the same type of powerhouse that had beaten the Lakers in six games in June of 2008.

The Celtics won only 50 games in the 2009-2010 season. They were the fourth-seed in the Eastern Conference and had the eighth-best record in the NBA.

Nonetheless, the series went back-and-forth and was extended to a winner-take-all Game 7. The problem for the Celtics was that they would play Game 7 without their starting center, Kendrick Perkins. Lakers center Andrew Bynum had been battling injuries and knee issues all season. The Lakers had grown used to going extended stretches without their gifted young center.

The Celtics had no such luxury. Perkins was lost to a serious knee injury late in Game 6. Game 7 was the first postseason game the Celtics played without his services, and it would prove to be too great an obstacle for the Celtics to overcome.

The Lakers won the dramatic Game 7, but the win is somewhat lessened by the impact of the injury to Perkins late in the series.