The 1990–91 NBA season was the Lakers' 43rd season in the National Basketball Association, and 31st in the city of Los Angeles.^[1] This season's highlight was Magic Johnson leading the Lakers to the NBA Finals, where they lost in five games to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Lakers would not return to the Finals until 2000. The season is generally considered the final season of the team's successful, uptempo Showtime era.^[7][8]

During the off-season, the team signed free agent Sam Perkins,^[9][10][11] and acquired Terry Teagle from the Golden State Warriors.^[12][13][14] The Lakers held a 35–11 record at the All-Star break,^[15] and finished the regular season with a 58–24 record, but for the first time since the 1980–81 season, did not win their division.^[16] Johnson finished second behind Jordan in the voting for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award.^{[17][18][19][20]} Johnson was the league's third-oldest point guard, and had grown more powerful and stronger than in his earlier years, but was also slower and less nimble.^[21] Mike Dunleavy was the new head coach, the offense used more half-court sets, and the team had a renewed emphasis on defense.^[22][23]

Johnson averaged 19.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 12.5 assists per game, and was named to the All-NBA First Team, while James Worthy led the team in scoring averaging 21.4 points per game, and was named to the All-NBA Third Team. Johnson and Worthy were both selected to play in the 1991 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte.^[24][25] In addition, Byron Scott provided the team with 14.5 points per game, while Perkins contributed 13.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, second-year center Vlade Divac provided with 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, A.C. Green played most of the season off the bench, averaging 9.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and Teagle contributed 9.9 points per game off the bench.^[26]

In the Western Conference First Round of the playoffs, the Lakers swept the Houston Rockets in three straight games,^{[27][28][29][30]} then defeated the 7th-seeded Golden State Warriors in five games in the Western Conference Semi-finals.^{[31][32][33][34]} In the Western Conference finals, they defeated the top-seeded and Pacific Division champion Portland Trail Blazers in six games to advance to the NBA Finals.^{[35][36][37][38]} Following the season, Mychal Thompson retired.

Game 5 of the NBA Finals was the last Finals game played at the Forum. It was also Magic's last NBA game before his retirement that November due to his diagnosis with the HIV virus,^{[39][40][41][42][43]} although he would play in the All-Star Game in 1992 and the Dream Team that summer. Magic would make a brief return to the Lakers midway through the 1995–96 NBA season.^{[44][45][46][47]} After losing to the Houston Rockets in that year's playoffs, Magic retired again for good.

• April 15, 1991 – Magic Johnson established the standard for most assists in a career with 9,888.^[48] The previous record holder was Oscar Robertson. For the season, Magic would establish a team record with 989 assists for the season. Magic would finish the season with a career total of 9,921.

NOTE: Please write the players statistics in alphabetical order by last name.

• Magic Johnson, All-NBA First Team
• James Worthy, All-NBA Third Team