1984 NBA Finals Game 6: LA strikes back! The Lakers, who'd been up 2 games to 1, return home to the Forum down 3-2 for Game 6. James Worthy got revenge for Kevin McHale's mid-air clothesline of Kurt Rambis back in Game 4 at the Forum by shooting Cedric Maxwell out of the sky. Maxwell hit the stanchion hard, but got up immediately and wanted revenge. Larry Bird, already pissed off, really got mad after being hit with a tech for throwing the ball up through the basket after play had been whistled dead. He hit that lefty floater, causing Danny Ainge to reach over to M.L. Carr on the Boston bench; Ainge looked at his left hand with a shocked look as if to say "it's alive!!!". (Shaq always seems to get credit for coming up with this; I recall Kobe and Curry and many other players doing it since. It was surely around before Ainge). Boston built up a double digit lead midway through the 3rd quarter and the Forum was rife with consternation. It appeared the C's were going to win their 15th title and yet another on LA's home floor. Magic and Kareem weren't going out like that. Neither were James Worthy, Michael Cooper, nor Byron Scott, who were flying all over the court. LA forced a Game 7 in Boston with a 119-108 victory despite a strong game from Bird. Before the series, Magic Johnson promised former Laker West that to "make things right", alluding to the fact that the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the Finals 6 times in the 60's. In these '84 Finals, Jerry West wouldn't even fly to Boston for the away games; the past L's hurt that badly. Lakers superfan Jack Nicholson mentioned during the 1987 Finals (also Lakers vs Celtics) that LA wasn't a day team, as in they didn't play too well unless the games were at night - for reasons you can imagine. However, in this '84 series, LA's 3 wins through 6 games were all won on a Sunday afternoon. The Celtics 3 wins all came in the night games held on weekdays.
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LA
Kareem: 30pts (14-26) 10reb 5ast 1blk
Magic: 21pts (10-18) 6reb 10ast 1stl
Worthy: 20pts 7reb 3ast 4stl 1stl
Cooper 23pts (9-15) 6reb 8ast 1stl
BOS
Bird: 28pts (8-11) 14reb 8ast 1stl 3blk
Parish: 16pts 10reb
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🎶: "Panama" by Van Halen is from 1984.

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