1983-84 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Larry Bird. Bird was named Finals MVP, averaging roughly 27 points and 14 rebounds per game across the seven-game series, on the heels of winning his first regular-season MVP award.

Series context

The 1983-84 NBA Finals marked the first time Larry Bird's Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers met in the championship round as professionals, a full five years after their famous 1979 NCAA championship game showdown between Indiana State and Michigan State. Both had entered the league together in the 1979-80 season, but injuries, roster construction, and playoff outcomes had kept their teams from crossing paths in the Finals until this series, even as each had already won multiple titles separately. Boston came in with a strong regular season, with Bird capturing his first MVP award, while Los Angeles finished behind Magic Johnson and an aging but still elite Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The series was an instant classic, swinging back and forth over seven tightly contested games. The Lakers stole Game 1 in Boston, 115-109, with Magic orchestrating the fast break, but the Celtics answered in overtime in Game 2, winning 124-121 after Magic was criticized for dribbling out the clock in regulation rather than attacking, a mistake that fed a growing narrative of Finals-stage inexperience. Los Angeles blew the series open in Game 3, winning 137-104 as Magic set a Finals assist record; an angry Bird criticized his own team's effort afterward. Boston responded with a physical, controversial 129-125 overtime win in Game 4, a game remembered for Kevin McHale's hard foul on Kurt Rambis on a breakaway, an act widely credited with shifting the series' physical tone in Boston's favor. The Celtics took control in the sweltering, non-air-conditioned Boston Garden in Game 5, dubbed the "Heat Game," winning 121-103. Los Angeles forced a Game 7 with a win in Game 6, but Boston closed out the championship at home, 111-102, with Cedric Maxwell contributing 24 points. Magic Johnson's late-series miscues, including turnovers and missed free throws in the final two games, earned him an unflattering nickname in the press. This series is widely regarded as the true beginning of the Bird-Magic Finals rivalry in the pros, setting up a run of further championship meetings between the two franchises across the decade. Boston finished the regular season 62-20, best in the league, while Los Angeles went 54-28, best in the Western Conference; the Celtics advanced through the East by sweeping Washington, then outlasting New York in seven games and Milwaukee in five, while the Lakers swept Kansas City before beating Dallas in five and Phoenix in six to reach the Finals. Magic Johnson's Game 3 assist record stood at 21, a mark that remained a Finals single-game record for decades. The series also carried lasting structural significance: it was the last Finals played under the 2-2-1-1-1 scheduling format before the league switched to 2-3-2, and Game 4's overtime was the last extra period played in a Finals game until 1990. Boston's Game 7 victory delivered the franchise's first championship clinched at home since 1966.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1984 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1984 NBA Finals