| No Rivalry Like Lakers-Celtics Authored by Graham Flashner - June 4, 2008 - 12:03 pm
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When it comes to playing for the championship, this is the greatest rivalry of any professional sport.
There may be greater divisional and regular-season rivalries—Yankees-Red Sox, Bears-Packers, and Cubs-Cardinals, to name a few – but those teams cannot meet for the championship.
This will be the 11th time the Lakers and Celtics are playing for the title. Only the Yankees and Dodgers have played as often, but they’ve been playing baseball for over a century, whereas the NBA is a mere 62 years old. And while seven of the Yanks-Dodgers World Series came while the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, this will be the 10th time the Lakers and Celtics have met since the Lakers moved to L.A. In the NFL, only the Cowboys and Steelers, with 3 Super Bowl meetings, have anything remotely comparable.
For an entire generation of young fans who grew up with no memories of Bird, Magic, and Kareem, it’s impossible to appreciate the impact these two legendary franchises had in shaping the NBA. Both teams have set standards of excellence and consistency that few can match. Between them, the Lakers and Celtics have won 30 titles (5 of the Lakers wins came in Minneapolis) and account for 17 players on the NBA’s Greatest 50 list (not counting Bill Walton, who finished his career in Boston).
It’s also easy to forget just how much the Celtics tormented the Lakers throughout the 1960s, winning all six times they played, and extending that to seven straight in 1984, before the Lakers took the last two meetings. Overall, the Celtics are 8-2 vs. the Lakers, including 4-0 in Game 7s.
The 2008 models are good, and bear certain similarities to their forebears. The Celtics are still winning with defense, while the Lakers favor a high-octane offense. Still, with all due respect, it’s hard to put the current versions of these teams in the same league as their predecessors.
The Celtics’ Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen is impressive, but they’ve only played one year together, and it would be unfair to compare them to the legendary 80s Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. Or, for that matter, the even more venerated Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and K.C. Jones, Hall of Famers all.
It would be equally unfair to compare a single current Laker, aside from Kobe Bryant, to the dynamic Showtime tandem of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy. Not to mention Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor, the original superstar trio.
Then there’s the dynasty aspect. The Lakers won four titles in the ‘80s, the Celtics three. The Lakers won three straight from 1999-2001. The Celtics? Well, they were the NBA’s first (and only) true dynasty, winning 11 of 13 titles from 1956-69, including 8 in a row. It’s not sounding like an old codger to say that streak will never be equaled.
Here, then, an appreciation of ten momentous meetings, not including the Celtics’ 1959 sweep of the aging Minneapolis Lakers:
1961-62 – Celtics 4, Lakers 3
The Celtics had already won three titles in a row, and this was the closest the Lakers ever came to winning a Game 7 in the hallowed Boston Garden. Baylor had scored 61 points to almost single-handedly win Game 5, and in Game 7, the Lakers had the ball in the waning seconds with the score tied. When Cousy left guard Frank Selvy to double-team West, Selvy found himself with an open, 8-foot shot from the corner. The usually reliable Selvy missed, and the Celtics won in overtime, 110-107. Years later, writing in his autobiography, Mr. Clutch, Jerry West said he was sure he would’ve made the shot. Of course.
1962-63 Celtics 4, Lakers 2
Sports Illustrated had declared the Celtics an old team, while glamorous L.A., playing at the spanking new Sports Arena, was declared as “the basketball capital of the world”. Though Bob Cousy had announced his retirement, the Celtics had added John Havlicek. With West recovering from an injury, the Lakers were easily dispatched, and Game 6 appropriately ended with a dribbling Cousy throwing the ball high in the air.
1964-65 Celtics 4, Lakers 1
Elgin Baylor blew out his knee in the opening round of the playoffs, and the severely handicapped Lakers were no match for a Celtics team described as the greatest defensive team ever, with K.C. Jones and Sam Jones anchoring the backcourt in the wake of Cousy’s retirement. Bill Russell had 30 rebounds in the clincher.
1965-66 Celtics 4, Lakers 3
The Lakers, with Baylor and West combining for 77 points, stunned the Celtics in Game 1 at Boston. Then, in a master motivational stroke, Red Auerbach announced after the game that he’d be stepping down as coach and that Russell would replace him. The Celtics won the next three games, only to see the Lakers bounce back to tie the series. Once again, the Lakers faced Game 7 at Boston Garden, and the Celtics shot out to a big lead, then dug in for the expected Lakers comeback. As usual, it fell just short, with the Celtics holding on to win, 95-93.
1967-68 Celtics 4, Lakers 2
The Lakers had a new coach, Butch van Breda Koff, but they still lacked a dominating center, and the Celtics, with Russell in his first year as player-coach, and an infusion of scrappy new players like Don Nelson and Bailey Howell, to go along with emerging superstar Havlicek, handled the Lakers with a balanced, efficient attack.
1968-69 Celtics 4, Lakers 3
If you were a Lakers fan, this was unquestioningly the most difficult loss to take. The aging Celtics limped into the playoffs with a 48-34 record; the Lakers, with newly acquired Wilt Chamberlain, had powered through the West, had homecourt advantage and, after Jerry West scored 94 points in Games 1 and 2, a 2-0 lead. But Celtics myth reigned supreme in Game 4, when Sam Jones hit an off-balance jumper off the wrong foot to stun L.A., 89-88 and tie the series. The teams traded victories, but for the first time, the Lakers wouldn’t have to play Game 7 in Boston. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke, famously (or infamously) put balloons in the rafters of the Forum, anticipating a victory party, riling the Celtics. The Celtics had a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, only to see West (42 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists) bring the Lakers back to within a point.
By that time, Chamberlain had taken himself out of the game with an injury. But when he tried to get back in, Van Breda Koff, with whom Chamberlain had feuded, said “we’re doing well enough without you.” The Celtics held on for a 108-106 victory. West was named MVP – the only time a player on a losing team won the award. Months later, Russell criticized Chamberlain for finishing the game on the bench. By then, Russell had announced his retirement, and the Celtics dynasty was over.
1983-84 Celtics 4, Lakers 3
The favored Lakers handily won Game 1 in Boston, and led by two in Game 2 with 20 seconds left, when James Worthy’s backcourt pass was picked off by Gerald Henderson for a game-tying layup. The Lakers would never recover. Though the Lakers won Game 3, Game 4 turned when Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis on a breakaway layup, and the Lakers lost their focus – and the game, in overtime. Facing yet another Game 7 in Boston, the Lakers seemed rattled, and a late fourth quarter rally was snuffed out by clutch shooting by Larry Bird and two Magic Johnson turnovers.
1984-85 Lakers 4, Celtics 2
As motivated as the Lakers were to avenge the previous year’s defeat, the series began with the Memorial Day Massacre, a 148-114 Celtics win. After that, it was all Lakers, led by 38 year-old Abdul Jabbar, who bounced back from a horrific Game 1 performance to win the series MVP. The Lakers figured out a great strategy to avoid another Game 7 loss: don’t play one. They stunned Celtics fans by closing out the series on the parquet floor in Boston, 111-100 –the first time the Celtics had given up a championship at home.
1986-87 Lakers 4, Celtics 2
The fast-breaking, Showtime Lakers hit their stride in this series, punctuated by one of the most famous shots in NBA history – Magic’s “junior” sky hook over the leaping arms of McHale and Parish to win Game 4. "You expect to lose on a sky-hook," Bird said afterwards. "You don't expect it to be from Magic." With a 3-1 lead in the series, the Lakers eventually won Game 6 in style at home, blowing out Boston in the second half. Bird later acknowledged this Lakers team as “the best team I’ve ever played against”. |
