NBA Finals: Top 7 Upsets In NBA Finals History
By Phil Watson
5. Boston Celtics over Los Angeles Lakers, 1969
The Los Angeles Lakers had lost to the Boston Celtics so many times in the NBA Finals in the 1960s—five times to be exact—but 1969 was going to be different.
The Lakers had won the Western Division going away with a 55-27 record, while Boston—led by aging player-coach Bill Russell—just got into the postseason as the fourth-place finishers in the East.
The Lakers held serve in Game 1 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., as Jerry West erupted for 53 points in L.A.’s 120-118 win. Elgin Baylor added 24 points for the Lakers, while John Havlicek had 37 for Boston and Sam Jones chipped in with 21.
West kept firing in Game 2 with 41 points as the Lakers took a 2-0 series lead with a 118-112 win. Baylor had 32 points and Johnny Egan fired in 26 for Los Angeles. Havlicek paced the Celtics with 43 points before fouling out and Jones again had 21.
With the scene shifting to Boston Garden for Game 3, the Celtics finally found an answer for West, who had “only” 24 points, while Egan added 22 as the Celtics pulled out a 111-105 win behind 34 points from Havlicek. Larry Siegfried had 28 for Boston.
In Game 4, the Lakers had an 88-87 lead and the ball with 15 seconds to go. But Em Bryant stole an inbounds pass and Boston went the other way. Jones missed a jumper, but the Celtics got the rebound and took a timeout with seven seconds left.
Bryant inbounded to Havlicek, who got the ball to Jones. Jones slipped as he took an off-balance 18-footer that just got over Wilt Chamberlain’s hand. The ball hit the rim twice and dropped in and Boston evened the series with an 89-88 victory.
Havlicek led the way for the Celtics again with 21 points and Siegfried had 20 before fouling out. West went off again, scoring 40 points, but he was one of only two Lakers in double figures.
West had 39 points and Egan tossed in 23 as the Lakers took a 3-2 lead with a 117-104 win in Game 5 back at The Forum. Jones scored 25 and Siegfried had 20 for the Celtics.
Don Nelson put together a big Game 6, scoring 25 points as Boston forced a seventh game with a 99-90 win in Game 6 at Boston Garden, offsetting the 26 points put up by both West and Baylor.
The Lakers fell behind by as much as 17 points in the fourth quarter of Game 7 and Chamberlain limped to the bench with a knee injury with 5:45 to go. But the Lakers roared back, cutting the deficit to 103-100 with a pair of West free throws.
Mel Counts, who had replaced Chamberlain, knocked down a jumper to make it a one-point game. Chamberlain told coach Butch van Breda Kolff he was ready to go back in, but VBK told Wilt that L.A. was “doing well enough without you.”
You know what they say about famous last words?
In the end, Boston hung on for a 108-106 win and Russell had an 11th title to take with him into retirement. Chamberlain watched helplessly from the bench as time ran out.
West, who averaged 37.9 points and 7.4 assists per game in the series, became the first—and still only—player from the losing team to be named Finals MVP. Small solace for a sixth straight loss to Boston in the Finals.
Shockingly (or not), van Breda Kolff was fired at the end of the season.