0:00Q1Momentum
30 apiece after twelve minutes. The two teams know each other by heart after six games and a series of unusual violence.
102-111
1984 NBA Finals - Game 7
The game Maxwell won
Tuesday, June 12, 1984
The first of three Bird-Magic Finals meetings, and the only Game 7. Boston win, and not thanks to the man you would expect.
102
Los Angeles Lakers
VSFinal score
111
Boston Celtics
Statistics
Key performances
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Los Angeles Lakers
Pts0
Reb0
Ast0
Cedric Maxwell
Boston Celtics
Pts0
Reb0
Ast0
Visualisation
The numbers
The stats that tell the story.
Le contexte
Boston and Los Angeles had not met in the Finals since 1969.
In between, the league had nearly vanished from television, then Bird and Magic arrived in the same year and put it back at the centre. This series is where the rivalry becomes official.
It was ugly. Game 4 produced a Kevin McHale foul on Kurt Rambis that would draw a suspension today, and a bench-clearing fight.
Three wins each, Game 7 at the Boston Garden, no air conditioning, in June.
Le climax
The game is level for a half, then Boston put up 33 in the third quarter.
Cedric Maxwell had told his teammates to climb on his back, the sort of line only quoted when it is followed through. He finishes with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.
Larry Bird produces 20 points and 12 rebounds. It is a very good game. It is not the best one on the floor.
Los Angeles come back in the fourth, Kareem leads all scorers with 29 at thirty-seven, Magic hands out 15 assists.
111-102. The Finals MVP trophy goes to Bird.
L'héritage
The series set the shape of the decade: Boston and Los Angeles would meet again in 1985 and 1987, and the Lakers would win both.
It also set a grudge. Cedric Maxwell never accepted the 1984 vote, and the numbers are on his side: he was the best player in that Game 7. Boston retired his jersey in 2003, nineteen years later, after a long estrangement.
It is a classic flaw of series awards: they crown a narrative, not a box score.
For the rest, it is the last time Boston beat Los Angeles in the Finals. Forty years on, it has not happened again.
Timeline
Key moments
The plays that defined this game.
0:00Q2Decisive
Cedric Maxwell had told his teammates to climb on his back. He finishes with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, the most complete line of the game.
Play: Swing to Bird, back to the weak-side post
All the defensive attention goes to Bird on the strong side: the cross-court pass finds Maxwell one on one at the other end
OffenseDefensePassShot
0:00Q3Decisive
33-26 to Boston in the third quarter. That is where the game is decided: the Celtics build a lead Los Angeles will not close.
0:00Q4Momentum
Los Angeles come back in the fourth as Boston manage only 20. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, aged thirty-seven, finishes as the game's leading scorer with 29.
0:00Q4Emotional
111-102. Larry Bird is voted Finals MVP with 20 points and 12 rebounds in this game. Maxwell did more that night, and said so for the rest of his life.