All through the 1986-87 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers had redemption on their minds after losing in the Western Conference Finals the year before to the Houston Rockets.
L.A. won a league-high 65 games and blitzed through the opening rounds of the playoffs to reach the NBA Finals for the sixth time in the past eight years.
None other than the Boston Celtics were waiting for it there. The two teams had split two championship matchups in 1984 and 1985, and 1987 would be the rubber match that would help determine which one would be the team of the 1980s.
Unlike in 1984 and 1985, the Lakers had the home-court advantage this time, and they would take full advantage of it.
In Game 1 at The Forum, Magic Johnson and company scored the first nine points of the contest and quickly built a sizable lead.
Their fast break was white-hot, and the Celtics looked old and tired by comparison.
The Lakers glided to an easy 126-113 win, and Johnson orchestrated Showtime to perfection with 29 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds and no turnovers. James Worthy was the biggest beneficiary of Johnson’s excellence with 33 points on 16-of-23 shooting, to go along with nine rebounds and 10 assists.
Unlike in the previous two matchups between the Lakers and Celtics, there was a feeling that the Lakers were clearly the superior team this time, and Game 1 made that clear.
