Summary
A funny thing happened on the way to a third straight Celtics-Lakers championship showdown: The Lakers didn't get there.
Boston breezed to a league-best 67-15 record, led by Larry Bird, who finished fifth in scoring, seventh in rebounding, ninth in steals, fourth in three-point shot percentage, and first in field goal percentage. The Celtics had traded Cedric Maxwell to the Los Angeles Clippers for Bill Walton, moving Kevin McHale into the starting rotation while Walton replaced him as the team's always valuable sixth man.
The Lakers were next best, at 62-20. But, while the Celtics moved through the Eastern Conference playoffs with ease, winning 11 of 12 games, the Lakers were derailed by the Houston Rockets in the Western finals. Led by their "Twin Towers," 7-0 Hakeem Olajuwon and 7-4 Ralph Sampson, the Rockets won four straight after losing the first game at Los Angeles.
The Rockets couldn't duplicate that against Boston in the championship series, though. The Celtics won the first two games at home. Houston then took two of the next three, but the Celtics closed it out with an easy 114-97 win in Game 6.
