1987-88 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

James Worthy. Worthy averaged 22.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists across the series and recorded his only career triple-double (36-16-10) in the deciding Game 7, earning Finals MVP for the champion Lakers.

Series context

The 1987-88 Finals capped the last great season of the Lakers' 'Showtime' era and represented the final act of the great 1980s Lakers-Celtics-Pistons power shift. Before the season even began, coach Pat Riley had famously guaranteed at the 1987 championship parade that Los Angeles would repeat, and the Lakers backed up the promise with a 62-win regular season and their seventh consecutive Pacific Division title. Detroit, meanwhile, was completing its own ascent, reaching the Finals for the first time since relocating to the city and bringing a physical, hard-nosed identity that would soon earn the Pistons their 'Bad Boys' nickname. The series itself was a genuine seven-game battle. Detroit stunned the Lakers in Game 1 at the Forum, 105-93, behind 34 points from Adrian Dantley, but Los Angeles answered with back-to-back home wins before the Pistons tied it up on their own floor. The signature moment of the series came in Game 6 in Detroit, when Isiah Thomas, playing through a severely sprained ankle, poured in an NBA Finals-record 25 points in the third quarter alone. Detroit appeared to have the win and the championship in hand, but a disputed foul call against Bill Laimbeer in the closing seconds allowed the Lakers to escape with a 103-102 win and force a Game 7. Game 7, played in Los Angeles, turned into a signature performance from James Worthy, who delivered the only triple-double of his career as the Lakers held on for a 108-105 victory. The title made Los Angeles the first team to win back-to-back NBA championships since the Boston Celtics won their eighth straight in 1969, and it was also the franchise's first Game 7 Finals win since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. For Detroit, the heartbreaking loss was the first step in a rivalry with the Lakers that would define the closing chapter of the decade, and it set the stage for the Pistons' own championship breakthrough the very next year. The series is widely remembered as one of the last great Finals of the pre-Jordan era, showcasing the transition from Magic Johnson's Lakers dynasty toward the rougher, defense-first style the Pistons would soon impose on the league. Both teams had to survive tough playoff roads to get there. Los Angeles swept San Antonio in the first round but then needed seven games to escape Utah after falling behind 2-1, and seven more to eliminate Dallas in the Western Conference Finals. Detroit, seeded behind the Lakers, dispatched Washington and Chicago in five games apiece before finally breaking through against Boston in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals, the first time the Pistons had reached the NBA Finals since the franchise relocated from Fort Wayne in 1957. Thomas's third-quarter explosion in Game 6 came on 11-of-13 shooting, and he finished that game with 43 points and eight assists despite playing the rest of it on a badly compromised ankle, a performance still regarded as one of the gutsiest in Finals history even in defeat. Worthy's Game 7 triple-double finished at 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists, earning him Finals MVP honors. The series also proved to be the last NBA Finals officiated by a two-man crew; the league expanded to three referees per game starting the following season, partly in response to criticism of contested late-game calls like the one against Laimbeer.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1988 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1988 NBA Finals
• NBA.com - Isiah Thomas Scores 43 Points, Game 6, 1988 Finals