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Dates | June 2–14 | |||||||||
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MVP | Magic Johnson (Los Angeles Lakers) | |||||||||
Hall of Famers | Celtics: Larry Bird (1998) Dennis Johnson (2010) Kevin McHale (1999) Robert Parish (2003) Bill Walton (1993) Lakers: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1995) Michael Cooper (2024) Magic Johnson (2002) James Worthy (2003) Coaches: K. C. Jones (1989, player) Pat Riley (2008) Officials: Hugh Evans (2022) Darell Garretson (2016) Earl Strom (1995) | |||||||||
Eastern finals | Celtics defeated Pistons, 4–3 | |||||||||
Western finals | Lakers defeated SuperSonics, 4–0 | |||||||||
The 1987 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1986–87 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference and defending NBA champion Boston Celtics 4 games to 2. The key moment of the series was Magic Johnson's Junior sky hook in Game 4. This was the tenth time that the Celtics and Lakers met in the NBA Finals (more than any other Finals matchup). It would be the Celtics' last Finals appearance until the two teams met in 2008.
This was the first NBA Championship Series conducted entirely in June. The last time there were no NBA Championship Series games in May was in the 1970–1971 season, when the finals (a four-game sweep that year) ended on April 30. It is also the first NBA Finals series to be conducted on a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday rotation, which was in use until 1990 and revived since the 2004 NBA Finals; in between the NBA Finals were conducted on a Sunday-Wednesday-Friday rotation.