The premier rivalry of the 1980s was between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics . The Purple and Gold won five titles during the decade, while the Bean Town team won three. Yet, they only met three times in the Finals during this stretch, with L.A. winning twice and Boston winning once.
One of the Lakers' Finals victories over the C's during the 1980s came in 1987 when they won in six games. If things had gone differently on a play involving James Worthy and Larry Bird late in Game 4, though, Boston could've been the team to win it all.
Lakers forward opens up on huge Bird mishap
The home team won the first three games of the 1987 NBA Finals, setting the stage for Game 4 in Boston. If the C's had won, the series would have been tied at two games apiece, while a Lakers win would have put them one win away from a championship.
Magic Johnson hit a go-ahead shot late in the fourth quarter, but Boston still had a chance to win it. The 6'9" forward guarded Bird on the final play, but he lost track of him. Larry got a wide-open shot but missed, and the Lakers won. Looking back on the play, Big Game James knows he got quite lucky.
"I failed miserably," Worthy said on The Dan Patrick Show. "Larry was so smart that, I don't know what they ran, the play call, but he diagrammed something where Danny Ainge was in the corner, so I had (Michael) Cooper between me and Danny Ainge. So I was trying to get to deny Larry Bird, and then when the referee gave them the ball, I realized what was happening, but it was too late. He kept pushing me up a little bit, and then Danny Ainge cleared out, and that whole side was open."
"And when that ball was in the air, I had already thrown the ball away in Game 2 in 1984, and now I'm thinking what a defensive dummy allowed him to get the ball. He saw me coming, he knew how much time, and I think he did see me out of his eye, but he doesn't miss that shot, so I just was very lucky," Worthy added.
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Worthy barely avoided another blunder vs. Celtics
It wasn't that long ago that the UNC product made the ill-fated pass in Game 2 of the 1984 NBA Finals against the Celtics that ended up getting stolen by Gerald Henderson, allowing the C's to hold on for a 113-11 victory.
With this play, Worthy and many other fans probably thought that history was repeating itself. As the Lakers legend recalled, Bird used Danny Ainge and Michael Cooper to create space, which worked like a charm. Unfortunately, the jumper didn't fall, and Los Angeles took a 3-1 lead. While Boston won Game 5 to send the series back west, the Lakers won Game 6 and added another championship to their storied history.
For Worthy's sake, it was certainly a good thing that Bird didn't hit this shot. And while the play itself certainly wasn't a great look for him, the Lakers still managed to come out on top, so all's well that ends well.
Related: "He was a late bloomer" - James Worthy gets real on when he realized Michael Jordan was better than him during their time at UNC
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