1984-85 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar, at age 38, was named Finals MVP after averaging 25.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.5 blocks across six games, becoming the oldest player to win the award.

Series context

The 1984-85 season set up a rematch of the previous year's classic Celtics-Lakers Finals, with Boston seeking to defend its title and Los Angeles desperate to finally beat its rival on the sport's biggest stage. Entering this series, the Lakers had lost all eight of their previous Finals meetings with the Celtics dating back to the franchise's Minneapolis and early Los Angeles years, a historical shadow that hung over the team and its fans. This Finals also debuted the new 2-3-2 format for game locations (rather than the traditional 2-2-1-1-1), a change implemented after NBA commissioner David Stern consulted with Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach about reducing cross-country travel for the two coastal franchises. The series began disastrously for Los Angeles. In Game 1, played in Boston, the Celtics blew the Lakers out 148-114 in a contest that became known as the "Memorial Day Massacre," with Boston racing to a huge halftime lead while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar managed just 12 points. The Lakers regrouped dramatically in Game 2, with a rejuvenated Abdul-Jabbar scoring 30 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in a 109-102 win that evened the series. Los Angeles carried that momentum home, routing Boston 136-111 in Game 3 behind James Worthy's 29 points, a game in which Abdul-Jabbar also became the NBA's all-time leading playoff scorer. Boston fought back to tie the series in Game 4, winning 107-105 on a Dennis Johnson buzzer-beating jumper. The Lakers seized control in Game 5, en route to a 120-111 win and a 3-2 series edge. Los Angeles closed out the championship in Game 6 back in Boston, winning 111-100 behind Abdul-Jabbar's 29 points and Worthy's 28, becoming the first visiting team ever to clinch an NBA title on the Boston Garden floor. The win finally erased the Lakers' Finals losing streak against Boston. Abdul-Jabbar, at 38 years old, became the oldest player ever named Finals MVP. Both teams had strong regular seasons entering the Finals: Boston went 63-19 and Los Angeles 62-20, and each cruised through its own conference playoffs, with the Celtics going 11-4 past Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia while the Lakers went 11-2 past Phoenix, Portland, and Denver. The Memorial Day Massacre lived up to its name statistically as well as in score: Boston's 79-49 halftime lead was a Finals-record 30-point advantage at the break, and reserve forward Scott Wedman made all 11 of his field-goal attempts, a perfect shooting night that became one of the enduring images of the blowout. The 34-point final margin set a new record for the largest margin of victory in a Celtics-Lakers Finals game. Coach Pat Riley later credited the humiliation of Game 1 with jolting his team into the defensive intensity and quicker ball movement that carried them through the rest of the series. The eventual triumph gave the Lakers their first Finals win over Boston in franchise history after nine total meetings dating back to the 1959 Minneapolis Lakers, and it made Los Angeles the answer to a decades-old trivia question that had followed the franchise through the Baylor-West era and into the Magic Johnson years.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1985 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1985 NBA Finals
• CelticsBlog - Remembering the 1985 Memorial Day Massacre