1986-87 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson was named Finals MVP after averaging roughly 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 13 assists per game, highlighted by his game-winning "junior, junior sky hook" in Game 4.

Series context

The 1986-87 season brought a third Finals meeting in four years between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, with both franchises' superstars, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, entering the series with three championships apiece and a chance to pull ahead in their long personal rivalry. Los Angeles finished the regular season with the best record in the league under Pat Riley, while Boston was a shell of its dominant 1986 self, having been ravaged by injuries to key reserves and still reeling emotionally from the death of top draft pick Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose just two days after being selected by the Celtics in the 1986 draft. Los Angeles came out dominant, winning Game 1 126-113 behind 29 points and 13 assists from Magic Johnson and 33 points from James Worthy, and then routing Boston 141-122 in Game 2, a game in which Michael Cooper set a Finals three-point record. Boston avoided a sweep and got back in the series with a 109-103 win in Game 3 at home, with Bird scoring 30 points and Dennis Johnson adding 26. Game 4 became the defining moment of the series: with the score tied and time running out, Magic Johnson took the ball to the lane and released a running hook shot over both Kevin McHale and Robert Parish that dropped through the net with two seconds left, sealing a 107-106 Lakers win. The shot, evoking comparisons to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's trademark skyhook, became known as Magic's "junior, junior sky hook" and is remembered as one of the signature shots of the Bird-Magic rivalry. Boston forced a return to Los Angeles with a Game 5 win, keyed by Danny Ainge's hot three-point shooting, but the Lakers closed out the championship in Game 6, winning 106-93 behind Abdul-Jabbar's team-high 32 points and Magic's 16 points and 19 assists. The title was the Lakers' fourth of the decade and made them the second NBA franchise to reach double-digit championships. It also marked Larry Bird's final trip to the NBA Finals, and Boston would not return to the championship round again until 2008. Los Angeles rolled through the regular season at 65-17 and lost only once in the entire playoffs prior to the Finals, a Game 4 blowout in Oakland in which Golden State's Sleepy Floyd scored 51 points; the Lakers otherwise swept Denver in the first round and Seattle in the conference finals. Boston, at 59-23, needed seven games to get past both Milwaukee in the second round and Detroit in the conference finals, a grueling path that left an already thin roster further worn down heading into the Finals. Cooper's Game 2 outburst, six three-pointers, set what was then an NBA Finals record for a single game. Boston's offensive struggles peaked in Game 6, when the Celtics managed just 12 points in the third quarter, one shy of what was then the record for the lowest-scoring quarter in playoff history, as Los Angeles pulled away for good. The championship was notable for extending the Lakers-Celtics rivalry's dominance of the decade, and for Boston, the defeat began a long championship drought: after five Finals trips in the 1980s, the Celtics would not return to the NBA Finals for another two decades.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1987 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1987 NBA Finals
• LakersNation - Michael Cooper Sets Then-NBA Finals Record With Six 3-Pointers