which the Lakers beat a 50+ win team in all four rounds to win the championship. I wouldn't be surprised if Jordan's Bulls or Duncan's Spurs did the same at least once. There were certainly more opportunities for the Lakers to beat 50+ win teams in the Shaq/Kobe & Kobe/Gasol seasons, but it also makes those runs more impressive, IMHO.

To be fair to Magic and Bird, they played several years where there just weren't as many teams so there was less opportunity to beat 50 win teams. I would guess that less teams made overall competition a lot better and beating a 45-win team then was roughly the equivalent of beating a 50-win team now. Of course, that's strictly opinion.