World Cup betting players have seen Brazil beat Italy twice in the final, once at Mexico 1970, and again at USA 1994. But that’s nothing compared to the history in the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, who are meeting for the 12th time with everything on the line.
It’s a bit more one-sided than Lakers fans would like to hear as the Celtics have won nine of 11 meetings in the Finals over their rivals from the West Coast, including the first eight meetings and four of those series went to seven games. The first came in 1959 when the Lakers were in Minneapolis, but they were swept in four straight by a team that included the likes of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, K.C. Jones and Tommy Heinsohn. The two met six times during the 1960s, with the Celtics continuing their domination of the Lakers and the rest of league, going onto win eight titles in a row (which is still the longest championship streak in any of the four professional leagues).
After 1969, the Lakers wouldn’t meet the Celtics in the NBA Finals until 1984, which featured the first meeting between Boston’s Larry Bird and Los Angeles’ Magic Johnson in a rivalry that has been said to save the NBA. The Celtics would win in seven games, but the Lakers would come back the next year to finally beat the Celtics in a six-game Finals matchup. They would meet again in 1987, and it ended in another six-game victory for the Lakers. The rivalry would then take a back seat to the Chicago-Detroit and Chicago-New York battles of the 1990s, and it was tough for anyone to win a championship in the Michael Jordan era (indeed, Jordan’s Bulls beat Johnson’s Lakers in the 1990 NBA Finals to start their first three-peat).
The last meeting was in 2008, when the Celtics and their “Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen beat the Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in six games. The series was punctuated with a 131-92 romp for the Celtics in Boston in the series clincher for their 17th title as a franchise, and their ninth at the expense of the Lakers.
This year’s edition of the rivalry has the Lakers as the NBA betting favorites, and they’re the defending champions after beating Orlando last year, although you can bet your last dollar that they would traded anything for the Celtics to replace the Magic. Now, they’ll get their chance to avenge their 2008 misery, and pull to within one of the Celtics for the most championships in NBA history. Whether you’re a betting player or not, this is a matchup you need to tune into.