The Los Angeles Lakers are arguably the NBA’s most storied franchise by virtue of their 17 world championships. They’ve been so successful over the decades that even when they haven’t won it all, they have had some impressive squads that were memorable, not to mention talented, star-studded and very competitive.
The 1983-84 season was a watershed one for Los Angeles, as it saw the team go up against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals for the first time in 15 years. While the Lakers didn’t get the job done there, it changed the entire tone of the Showtime era and set themselves up to reach a higher level of greatness.
On the edge of a dream
The 1983-84 campaign started out looking like one of transition. The Lakers had traded skilled and popular guard Norm Nixon to the San Diego Clippers for center Swen Nater and the draft rights to Byron Scott, who had just been the No. 4 selection in the draft. Nixon was a big part of L.A.’s championship teams in 1980 and 1982, and the deal was a controversial one for a while.
Scott struggled early on, both on and off the court, as he shot poorly and wasn’t initially accepted into the inner sanctum of the team. Magic Johnson missed 15 games early in the year with a finger injury, and three-time All-Star forward Jamaal Wilkes contracted an intestinal infection later on that greatly compromised him.
Luckily, Scott started to play well as spring arrived, which earned him more playing time, not to mention respect. Even better, second-year forward James Worthy, the No. 1 pick in the 1982 draft, was emerging as a force.
After finishing the regular season 54-28, the Lakers glided through the early rounds of the playoffs to reach the NBA Finals. In three of the previous four seasons, they had gotten there and faced Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers. This time, however, things were about to get serious.
The Purple and Gold would be playing Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics for the world championship in a resurrection of the game’s greatest rivalry.
The Lakers won Game 1 in Boston fairly easily, and they were in position to take Game 2 as well, leading 113-111 with 18 seconds left following two missed free throws by Kevin McHale. Worthy inbounded the ball to Johnson in the backcourt, who gave it back to Worthy. Instead of tossing a short return pass to Johnson and waiting for Boston to commit an intentional foul, Worthy threw an ill-advised cross-court pass that was intercepted by Gerald Henderson, who waltzed in for the game-tying layup.
With 13 seconds remaining, L.A. still had a chance to win, but Johnson dribbled out the clock after failing to find a receiver. Boston won in overtime, and the tone had been set for this series.
It looked like things would be just fine when the Lakers ran the Celtics into a state of vertigo in Game 3, 137-104. But after they took a sizable lead into the third quarter of Game 4, McHale clotheslined forward Kurt Rambis on a fast-break layup attempt, and everything changed.
The Lakers were taken out of their game, physically and emotionally. With the Celtics intimidating them, both in terms of physicality and trash-talking, they blew a five-point lead with about a minute left and lost again in overtime.
With the two teams tied at two wins apiece, the series was starting to take on the feel of a slow-motion nightmare for L.A. Game 5 in Boston was played during an oppressive heat wave inside of antiquated Boston Garden, which had no air conditioning. The overheated Lakers wilted in the second half and fell by 18 points.
Even though they saved face at home with a 119-108 Game 6 win, all they did was to earn a stay of execution. Back in Boston Garden for Game 7, the Celtics built a double-digit fourth-quarter lead and held off a desperate Lakers rally in the final minutes to take it all, 111-102.
The Lakers had lost seven previous championships to Boston, three times in a Game 7, but this was perhaps the most miserable setback at the hands of their archrivals. However, the seeds for the franchise’s greatest accomplishment had been planted. Head coach Pat Riley would find his leadership muscle and direct his squad to a world title the following year over the same Celtics team by making them mentally tougher and better defensively.
To paraphrase a popular Twisted Sister song from 1984, the Lakers were not going to take it anymore.
