Background
The Celtics' star recruit from the 1986/87 NBA draft, Len Bias, died of a heart attack after consuming cocaine while celebrating his pick-up by the Celtics. Throughout the season, the Celtics battled injuries and fatigue to finish the season with a 59-23 record, topping the Eastern Conference, despite finishing with a sub-par road record. The Celtics lost backup swingman Scott Wedman to an ankle injury early in the season, while Bill Walton's frequent foot injuries returned and Kevin McHale played on a broken foot late in the season. In the playoffs, the Celtics swept Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, but had to squeak past the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons in a pair of seven-game series.
After being eliminated in the Western Conference Finals a year earlier, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals and were rewarded with homecourt advantage, besting the Celtics by accumulating a 65-17 record. During the season head coach Pat Riley made an offensive adjustment by assigning guard Magic Johnson as the focal point of the offense, while acquiring Mychal Thompson from the San Antonio Spurs before the trade deadline in a successful effort to lessen center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's minutes heading into the post-season. The Lakers swept the Denver Nuggets, then beat the Golden State Warriors in five, before earning another playoff sweep against the Seattle SuperSonics in the conference finals.
The first two games would be played in Los Angeles, the next three games in Boston, and the final two games were scheduled to be played in Los Angeles. The Lakers defeated the Celtics four games to two.
Game 4 of this series is widely regarded as one of the most exciting in NBA Finals history as it came down to a flurry of activity and multiple lead changes in the final seconds.
Read more about this topic: 1987 NBA Finals
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)