1984 NBA Finals
GAME 1
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage
The Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns in a sixth game Friday night, flew to Boston Saturday and within six minutes of Sunday's game led, 20-6.
They allowed no time to discuss the early strategy and suspense that would build through the seven games of this "dream" final series. Or to remember the seven Lakers-Celtics championship series (Boston won all, the last 15 years ago).
Trailing, 4-3, LA double-teamed Boston's front line as the Celtics' three other playoff opponents had, allowing the Celtic guards outside shots. The Celtic guards were 15 of 40. That was the first problem.
The Lakers rebounded their misses - the second problem. And then LA ran. Laker guard Magic Johnson (18 points, 10 assists) scored on a four-on-one for a 13-6 lead. Laker forward James Worthy (20 points) stole Larry Bird's pass and slammed alone for 15-6. Bird missed two baseline jumpers, and Rambis was fouled on a follow-up: 18-6. Celtic center Robert Parish missed a turnaround. Johnson sank a 19-footer (Magic's outside shooting was another problem) over Gerald Henderson (whose matchup with Johnson was a bigger problem). 20-6.
"I sat there wondering what the hell they'd be like Thursday with four days' rest," said Celtic forward Kevin McHale.
Parish made a free throw. Whoopee. Magic drove end-to-end. 22-7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - who had suffered a migraine until he asked someone to whip his head around (cracking his vertebrae into its proper places) - sky-hooked over Parish. And it was 30-12 with 39:16 to go.
Boston cut it to 34-22 by the end of the first quarter, but LA had made 16 of 22 (73 percent). "We made a statement," said Laker coach Pat Riley. "That was as good a period as we've ever played in a big game."
Dennis Johnson (23 points) and McHale helped cut it to 10, but Michael Cooper's three-pointer at 0:00 made it 65-52 at intermission.
The Celtics finally had time to decide what had happened.
One problem appeared obvious. Boston coach K.C. Jones had decided to let the Lakers to dictate the matchups. Magic Johnson was guarding Gerald Henderson, so Henderson would guard Johnson. This would make it easier for the Celtics to find their defensive assignments when the Lakers began their break. (It had no effect on the Lakers' break. What it did was allow Magic the freedom of running the offense without the pestering DJ. It also had to be a source of confidence - the Celtics were admitting they were scared of being beaten downcourt.)
But Henderson guarded Magic the rest of this game, and most of the next game, and some of even the next game.
Another problem was Parish: 2 of 7 from the floor, 1 of 4 free throws in the first half, 11.2-point average in this and the last four games against Bob Lanier. "We can't win without Robert Parish," said Boston forward Cedric Maxwell. "For us to win, we can't have a scoring difference of 23 to 5 (Abdul- Jabbar vs. Parish in the first half)." And when Parish earned his fourth foul early in the third quarter, Abdul-Jabbar helped the Lakers make it 73-54, their largest lead of the day.
Also, Boston hadn't played against a good running team in the playoffs.
None of these realizations could help the Celtics now. So they gave the ball to Bird (24 points, 14 rebounds).
He and DJ and Scott Wedman (three baskets in the third quarter) closed the quarter with a 14-3 run. Bird finished it with a buzzer three-pointer from Cooper's spot.
It was 92-88 with 12 minutes left. The Celtics went cold, LA scored on four straight fast breaks, and Parish fouled out with 7:23 left.
Trailing by five with two minutes left, Maxwell drove for a layin through Magic. The offensive foul nullified the basket, and the game was over. 115-109 was a respectable score - this could be a dream series after all - but the next day, the papers reported, "K.C. Jones is now 0-5 as a head coach in championship final competition."
3 comments:
My favorite moment of recent vintage was when baby came down with an offensive board in the 3rd quarter.
for a second he didn't know what to do.
Everyone else in white was surprised too.
Motionless.
That's our team.
When I see the C's giving up offensive rebounds I always think of Doc's comments just a few short months ago about the '86 Bears and wanting to be remembered as a great defensive team. I'd say an inability to crash the defensive boards is a pretty fundamental detriment to achieving that goal. What would be the equivalent to this in football? "We want to be a great defensive team but if we're not getting tackles we'll never get there".
Yeah, that '86 bears comment is getting more and more silly.
But I guess doc was trying to set their sights high.
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