Boston Celtics at LA Lakers - 2/15/1987

Love that opening music. Bring it back. Ain't nothing wrong with old-school

1000 times better than today's freak shows.

The greatest openings for sports. The Goat CBS basketball

The broadcast crew of Stockton and Heinsen is total professionalism. Great interaction between the two and great accuracy in their play-by-play calls. It is ridiculously better than what we have nowadays.

The greatest basketball rivalry in NBA history.

The lead in and the theme song was so amazing

I've been a Boston Celtics fan, since the arrival of Larry Bird. I followed the 80s so closely, I was able to name all 12 players on every roster in the NBA, the only person at my High School, to be able to do that. At the time, I was also able to name off all 24 players, of each Major League Baseball roster, and name every single AAA, AA, and A player for my favorite team, the New York Yankees. So, I know my Celtics' history very well, and especially the 80s Celtics. I will tell you, with 100% certainty, that the 2nd half of this particular game, marked the beginning of the end, for the 80s Celtics dynasty. After losing a big lead in this game, in the 2nd half, Boston simply stopped beating over .500 teams, on the road. Larry Bird made sure they brought their pride to any and all games in the old Boston Garden. If the Celtics lost a home game, it was huge news. They even played well in those absolutely bogus "home games" in the Hartford Civic Center, 3 per season. But, playing on the road, after this loss to LA, became a true struggle for the Boston Celtics. Even against far lesser teams, they struggled on the road. In the 87 playoffs, we amazingly won a road game, in The Mecca, the home of the Milwaukee Bucks, a very good and deep team, to go up 3-1, but shockingly, they lost game 5 back in Boston Garden, and of course Game 6, back in The Mecca. The Bucks, led by Jack Sikma, and Sidney Moncrief, were up by 10, with about 5-6 minutes remaining in Boston Garden, in Game 7, when Larry Bird came alive, and brought the Celtics back to win the game. Possibly 119-113 if memory serves correct. Then Bird stole the ball in Game 5 to preserve home court in the Detroit series in the ECF, and won a razor close Game 7, to move to the NBA Finals, against the greatest Lakers team of all-time, winning 2 of 3 in Boston, the only loss was by 1 point. But, in both the Pistons and Lakers series, Boston got absolutely torched in both the Silverdome, and the LA Forum. The 87-88 season saw little change away from home, and the 88-89 season was an unmitigated disaster on the road, with the Celtics not beating one single team above .500 the entire season, on the road, when Bird missed all but 6 games of the season, with double heel surgery. From the very early 90s, to until Bird retired, there would be a big turnaround on the road, with a nice mixture of vets like Bird, McHale, Parish, Bagley, and Joe Kleine, with young and athletic players, like Brian Shaw, Reggie Lewis, Kelvin Upshaw, Kevin Gamble, Ed Pinckney, Rick Fox, Dee Brown, Sherman Douglas, and Michael Smith. Many of these young guys, wouldn't have gotten any playing time, whatsoever, had KC Jones still been Head Coach. He just did NOT like playing young guys, and I doubt Reggie Lewis would have ever blossomed into a superstar, had KC stayed on. Chris Ford was simply a better Head Coach, and as a result of trusting his young players more often, they became a much better road team. Had Reggie Lewis, Lenny Bias, Brian Shaw, Kevin Gamble, and a decent center, played together in the 90s, I have little doubt that we would have won at least 1--2 Titles together. We were truly deprived of a good and exciting team. Sorry for the long post, guys, I'm just a lonely woman, having fun thinking about the past, and reliving a much funner and simpler time of my life. I'm just really depressed lately, and my security blanket is the 1980s, especially basketball, baseball, Mike Tyson fights, and Miami Hurricanes football, with all the awesome QBS, and three awesome coaches, my favorite being Jimmy Johnson. If you read my entire post, thank you so much. I was REALLY down tonight, and writing about all my memories sure helped me out. Thank you! ♥-- Susan

As a Lakers fan, i will thank the Celtics franchise, for this great rivalry. Hope to see both team in the finals one day

Great memories. Miss the 80's. They need a documentary on the NBA in the 80's.

This game is so exciting to watch and it is only a regular season game. What an intensity game.

Loved CBS intro Best ever

Dammm, I remember watching this game as a 11 Year Old, on that Sunday afternoon back in February 1987. I knew when LA won this game, they would win the title.

Great game. Lakers showtime FTW! I remember watching this back in the day and cheering like crazy. Lakers 80's dynasty allowed some legendary big men to finally get rings. In 1980 it was Jim Chones and Spencer Haywood, though the latter had mistakenly chosen drugs. 1982 and 1985 it was Bob McAdoo, the ex-scoring champ with the funky jump shot. They came within 1 dirty Rambis takedown to get big man Swen Nater a ring in 1984. Boston won the ex-Blazer FA pickups in 1986 when they got Bill Walton and Lakers got Maurice Lucas. Then the Lakers got Mychal Thompson 2 rings during the back-to-back titles. In the post game an exasperated Bird said "If San Antonio needed money, we would've sent them money. But to go and help the Lakers like that is just terrible." Good times. Showtime!!! 🏀🏆

Love These Classic Games ... Especially between these two Goliath's

Bird v Magic. Lakers, Celtics, Pistons. And a young MJ. Fabulous 80s nba.

This is the NBA rivalry I started with as a kid.

Need more games from 80s , even late 70s if you have them. Great quality video here also

Get chills to the opening of the these old CBS games... Nothing better... Maybe NBC was close

Hey DENNIS JOHNSON WE MISS U what a guard follow him when he was SEATTLE, NEW YORK ,PHEONIX,CELTICS😊❤

God, remembering back watching this game being one of millions in US all into Basketball of serious fad of the era of watching and playing. Today, those millions like me no longer even watching NBA Games due to the rule changes from being traditional American rules of Man on Man to the ever growing Intl based rules of today's NBA. The game today is of an international craze due to their homegrown players succeeding in their NBA. The gameis just not appealing to watch anymore for US of the game being boring of stand around Defenses ( rare for team to play man over zone today, few teams try ) of many jump shots and not enough exposed matchups of certain players manning up the other ( tense vibe of watching these matchups ) But this game brings me back, ON HOW WE WERE SO INTO THE GAME OF THE MANY PLAYERS WE WATCH OF BEING COMPETETIVE FOR THE MATCHUPS OF PLAYERS FROM START TO FINISH.