1967-68 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

The Finals MVP award was not introduced until 1969; no Finals MVP was named for this series.

Series context

The 1967-68 NBA Finals brought together two franchises that had grown into the league's defining rivalry, with the Boston Celtics facing the Los Angeles Lakers for the sixth time in ten seasons. After being upset by Philadelphia the previous year, the Celtics regrouped under player-coach Bill Russell, who had taken over the head coaching duties in 1966 as the first Black head coach of a major American professional sports team. Boston finished the regular season well behind Philadelphia's win total, yet the Celtics found their form in the playoffs, upending the 76ers in a seven-game Eastern Division finals before advancing to face Los Angeles once again. The Lakers, led by Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, remained one of the most talented teams in the league but continued to be haunted by their inability to get past Boston in the championship round, a frustration that dated back to the early 1960s. The series began with Boston taking Game 1 at home, 107-101, but the Lakers answered in Game 2 with a 123-113 win to even the series. Boston reclaimed the advantage in Game 3, only for Los Angeles to level things again in Game 4. Boston then won a tense overtime Game 5, 120-117, before finishing the job in Game 6 on May 2 with a convincing 124-109 victory in Los Angeles. That contest marked the first time in league history that any NBA competition, playoff or regular season, had been played during the month of May, a small but notable scheduling milestone reflecting the league's expanding season. The championship gave Boston its tenth title in twelve seasons, an almost unfathomable run of sustained excellence, and further cemented Russell's legacy as both a transformative player and a pioneering coach. This series would be the last NBA Finals played before the league introduced a Finals Most Valuable Player award the following season, meaning no individual was formally recognized for the 1968 championship performance despite standout play from veterans on both sides. The result also set the stage for one final act of the Russell-era Celtics dynasty, as Boston and Los Angeles would meet again the very next spring in what proved to be Russell's last season as a player. The gap behind Philadelphia was substantial: the 76ers ran away with the Eastern Division at 62-20, while Boston finished a distant second at 54-28, and Los Angeles topped the Western Division at 52-30 to enter the Finals with home-court advantage over Boston for the first time in the rivalry. The Lakers had reached the Finals comparatively easily, dispatching the Chicago Bulls 4-1 in the division semifinals before sweeping the San Francisco Warriors 4-0 in the division finals, a much lighter path than Boston's grueling seven-game war with Philadelphia. Game 3 went to Boston 127-119, and Los Angeles answered in Game 4 with a 119-105 win to tie the series at two games apiece before the Celtics won three of the last four to close it out. The loss extended a bitter pattern for the Lakers, who had now fallen to Boston in the Finals six times since 1959 without ever winning the series, a frustration that would not be resolved until the franchise finally won its first Los Angeles championship in 1972, by which time Russell had already retired.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1968 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1968 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1967-68 NBA Season Summary