During the ’83-’84 season, the Lakers and the Celtics steamrolled through the regular season. Boston finished number one in the Eastern Conference with a 62-20 record, while the Lakers finished with 54 victories to post the best record in the West.
Bird and the Celtics would knock off Washington, survive the Knicks, and beat the Bucks en route to the Finals.
Magic and the Lakers bumped off all their playoff competition in the West. They defeated Kansas City, Dallas, and Phoenix with relative ease.
The matchup was now between Best of the West, Los Angeles, and the Beast from the East, Boston.
In Game One, Kareem, not Magic, would do everything he could to exorcize all the Boston demons. Abdul Jabbar scored 32 points to lead the Lakers to a 115-109 victory at the Garden.
The Lakers had already accomplished their goal of splitting between Boston but wanted more.
Game Two was in the grasp of the Lakers. They held a 2-point lead with only 20 seconds left on the clock.
Magic made a rebound of Kevin McHale’s free throw miss, and all he had to do was run out the clock. Instead, however, he called timeout.
Magic and coach Pat Riley had committed a significant miscommunication. Riley instructed Johnson to call timeout if McHale made his free throws, not if he missed them.
After the timeout, Gerald Henderson stole James Worthy’s pass and scored to tie the game.
The Celtics would win 124-121 overtime, and Magic Johnson was devastated by his ill-advised timeout.
Magic and the Lakers were able to shrug off their Game Two blunders. Instead, they destroyed the Celtics 137-104, fueled by 51 fast break points.
The Celtics were embarrassed, and they needed to circle the wagons. Celtics’ coach, KC Jones, instructed his team, “No more layups.”
McHale told Danny Ainge, “We’ve got to foul someone hard.” And uncharacteristically, he did just that.
Kurt Rambis was going in for another fast-break layup with the Celtics trailing 76-70 in Game Four. And McHale clotheslined him, and he fell to the court hard.
Pushing and shoving ensued and was the spark the Celtics needed. They were telling the Lakers there would be no more easy baskets.
Despite the chippiness, the Lakers still had a 5-point lead and were ready to put the Celtics on the ropes.
However, Los Angeles seemed to melt under the physical pressure exerted by the Celts. Bird and Parish combined to erase the deficit and forced the game to overtime.
The game came down to the last minute, and with 35 seconds left, the always-dependable Magic Johnson missed both free throws. Magic looked beaten, and his trademark smile was gone.
Bird said, “That’s when I knew we had ’em.”
“Mr. Clutch” Larry Bird came down the court and hit a jumper to put Boston up by 2, 125-123, with 16 seconds left.
James Worthy was now at the line and could have made up for Magic’s previous misses. But he, too, buckled under the Celtics’ suffocating confidence and momentum.
He missed both shots, and the Celtics won Game Four, 129-125.
McHale’s hard foul fired his team up and shifted the series’ momentum.
Back in Boston, Bird took over Game Five. He said, “I had that rhythm you could dream of. It was a tremendous feeling. And our crowd was fantastic. I felt after Game Five, and we had it.”
He scored 34 points and 17 rebounds, igniting the Celtics to a 121-103 victory in the pivotal Game Five matchup.
It was back to Forum for Game Six, with the Celtics holding a 3-2 series lead. In Game Six, they would pound and trash-talk Los Angeles to no end. However, you can never count out great teams, especially players like Magic Johnson.
Magic led his team with 21 points and ten rebounds to combat Bird’s 28 issues. However, Johnson would not allow the Lakers to lose the championship on their home court. Instead, he willed the Lakers to a 119-108 win and knotted the series at 3-3.
Magic Johnson said about his team before the game, “That takedown of Rambis had changed the complexion of the series.”
The Celtics’ eastern physical play style was too much for the finesse Lakers. However, this was just the beginning of the epic battles between Los Angeles in the 1980s. Both teams would meet again in 1985 and 1987, with the Lakers winning both times.
