"We’d rotate defensive styles every four or five minutes" — Lakers assistant coach reveals their complicated defensive schemes against Larry Bird

In his prime, Larry Bird caused major headaches to opposing teams' defenses. He was not only a scoring machine but also crashed the boards and orchestrated the Boston Celtics' defense.

Ahead of their games against Larry Legend, teams would finetune their defensive schemes to have a shot at victory. Dave Wohl, an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1982 to 1985, detailed their defensive strategies to contain the Celtics icon.

Different looks every time

"The Lakers had four or five ways to do it," Wohl said, per the Los Angeles Times. "If Michael Cooper was on him, we'd deny him the ball. If it was James Worthy, we'd back off him. When we had Larry Spriggs, we would try to bang him and beat him up physically."

Wohl added that they wanted to bump Bird every time, whether he was in the paint or 30 feet away from the basket. Sometimes, they would switch off on picks, and sometimes, they didn't. The point was to keep Larry on his toes.

"And we'd rotate defensive styles every four or five minutes," Wohl added . "We wanted him to have to think every time he touched the ball, 'Before they were denying, now they're switching.' We wanted to get him out of rhythm, expecting something different so he'd never feel comfortable about what was coming next. I think we did a very good job against him."

During Wohl's stint as an assistant for the Lakers, they twice faced the Celtics in the NBA Finals: losing in 1984 but winning in 1985. It's better than losing on both occasions. Safe to say that Wohl's stint with the Purple and Gold was good. The coaching staff's efforts in crafting varying defensive packages did not go to waste.

Impossible to defend

When Phil Jackson was still an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls , he also closely observed Bird and his tendencies on offense. The Zen Master had a pretty good idea of how to contain the forward. However, Bird had too many tricks up his sleeve which made him almost impossible to defend.

"You want to extend him on defense and deny him the ball, but you don't want him to take those step-back jumpers," said Jackson. " You stay close and he gets picks and steps out and that's a dangerous situation. When he catches the ball going to the basket, you're in trouble, too, because he can go to the left or the right and can pass the ball both ways.

" Whatever he does, a lot of times it's devastating ."

It's been over 30 years since we last saw Bird on the hardcourt as a player. After his three-year stint as a coach, Kodak has kept a relatively low profile. Despite this, we still keep hearing his name among current players. They are in awe of what Bird did with the sport and are eager to pick up a few tricks from him in their bid for greatness.

Related: "It's funny how the game has changed" - Why Larry Bird isn't convinced that his era is the greatest in basketball history