The Lakers Have Won This Date Before

By the Lakers Nightly Desk · Monday, October 12

The Lakers have won on this October date before, twice, in seasons that remade the franchise. Tuesday's rematch with Golden State asks whether this retooling adds up to anything like that.

Luka Doncic of the Lakers — Luka Doncic. Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Two Octobers, One Date

The calendar has been kind to the Lakers on Oct. 12 before. In 1979, a 103-102 win at San Diego came during Magic Johnson's first training camp, the season Jerry Buss had just bought the team for $67.5 million. A year later, on the same date, the Lakers beat Houston 114-103, opening the run that delivered the franchise's first title of the Buss era. Both games were preseason tune-ups for rosters still finding their shape, the way this one is now, three games into a slate that has already produced two wins over Sacramento and a 98-124 loss at Golden State.

Ownership Changes, Then and Now

Buss's purchase in 1979 began more than four decades of family control that is only now ending — Mark Walter's deal to sell the controlling stake to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner, for $12.5 billion, closed out October. Magic's arrival that same year eventually built a dynasty under Buss; Doncic's arrival by trade in February 2025 is the bet that a new ownership group inherits a core, not a rebuild. The roster around him keeps turning: Rafael Castro signed and William Kyle waived this week, the latest swap in a camp that also saw Cole Swider arrive and Chase Ross and Meechie Johnson depart.

What Tuesday Settles

Golden State returns to Los Angeles Tuesday still without Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody, both out with knee injuries, a week after beating the Lakers 124-98. The Lakers will again be short-handed: Kessler, Sexton, Williams, Knecht and Carr were all listed without a firm return date by midweek, Kessler working back from a finger injury and Sexton from a lower-leg issue. Payroll sits at $201.3 million, above the $200.4 million tax line, with Doncic's $49.8 million the largest number on the books — the cost of betting this era doesn't fade the way the one after Magic's first title eventually did.

Have the Lakers won on Oct. 12 before?

Yes — they beat Houston 114-103 on Oct. 12, 1980, and San Diego 103-102 on Oct. 12, 1979, both preseason wins in the years Magic Johnson arrived and the franchise's first Buss-era title followed.

Who is out for the Lakers' game against the Warriors?

Kessler, Sexton, Williams, Knecht and Carr were all without a clear return date by midweek, while Golden State is missing Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody with knee injuries.

By the Lakers Nightly Desk, written from the club's data and the reports on file, with every name and number checked against them. How the desks work.