The rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers was well established by the time that this CBS Sports pregame show of the 1987 NBA Finals Game 1 between the two came on air at 9 pm EDT on June 2, 1986.
The Celtics–Lakers rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers…..who are by far the two most storied franchises in the NBA….and the rivalry has been called the best in the NBA.
The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers have met a record 12 times in the NBA Finals, starting with their first Finals meeting in 1959. They would both go on to dominate the league in the 1960’s and 1980’s….while facing each other six times in the 1960’s….three times in the 1980’s….and two times in 2008 and 2010.
The two teams have won the two highest numbers of championships in the NBA….with the Celtics have won 17….and the Lakers have won 16 (11 as the L.A. Lakers and 5 as the Minneapolis Lakers). Together, they account for 33 of the 72 championships in NBA history. As of 2018, the Celtics and Lakers have a .590 and .596 all-time winning records respectively….and as of the end of the 2017–18 season, Boston is the only team with a winning overall record against the Lakers.
CBS’s legendary NBA broadcast team of Brent Musburger and Pat O’Brien at the studio desks….along with Dick Stockton and Tom Heinsohn behind the play by play mikes….provide ample support to the power of the celtics vs lakers rivalry in this video herewith…..as they set the stage for what’s about to happen on the court in Game 1 of the 1987 NBA Finals.
