1985 NBA Finals

The 1985 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1984–85 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics against the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics were looking to repeat as NBA champions for the first time since the 1968–69 season. The Celtics had home court advantage for the second year in a row as they finished the regular season with a 63–19 record while the Lakers compiled a 62–20 record. The Lakers looked to bounce back from the previous year's painful loss to the Celtics in the championship series, and were still seeking to beat Boston for the first time ever in NBA Finals history. Also for the first time since 1955, the Finals implemented a 2–3–2 format with Games 1 and 2 in Boston while the next three games were in Los Angeles. The final two games of the series would be played in Boston, if required. This change of format came after David Stern had a conversation with Celtics legend Red Auerbach in 1984, who disliked the frequent traveling between games. The 2–3–2 format would be used until the 2013 NBA Finals, after which the 2–2–1–1–1 format returned in 2014. The 2–3–2 format has long been used by Major League Baseball in the World Series and was also used in the League Championship Series upon changing to a best-of-seven format later that year. The Stanley Cup Final in the National Hockey League also went to a 2–3–2 format that same year as well as the previous year but returned to a 2–2–1–1–1 format from 1986 onward. With the help of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers achieved their first NBA Finals victory over...