Plenty of history in the NBA Finals

A little history lesson for you groms in the blogosphere who were still in diapers the last time the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics were in the NBA Finals together in 1987:

The Lakers and Celtics haven’t met in the Finals for quite some time, but no two teams have been here more often.

In all, the Celtics and Lakers have been to the Finals 47 times heading into next week’s Finals, combining to win 30 titles.

The last time the two rivals met, the NBA’s popularity was at an all-time high and Magic Johnson lifted the Lakers over the defending-champion Celtics 4-2 en route to MVP honors in 1987 (If you want more on this series, just stop by Ryantific’s place, he’s got it running on a loop on a tape in his VCR).

The Celtics won the title a year earlier over Houston in six but lost the title to the Lakers again in 1985 when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar skyhooked his way to MVP honors in a six-game series win by Los Angeles. The ’85 and ’87 series wins were the only Lakers Finals victories over the Celtics.

The Lakers haven’t been to a Finals since 2004, which doesn’t seem like a long time unless you’re a Laker Lover and have come accustomed to being there 28 other times. The Lakers won half their 28 Finals appearances with their last title coming in 2002, the last of three straight titles won by the Lakers and their three-time Finals MVP Shaquille O’Neal. (On a side note, this is the first time since 1998 that neither Shaq nor Tim Duncan are in the Finals).

The Celtics have been to the Finals 19 times and are back again following Friday’s Game 6 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

The Lakers and Celtics will be meeting for the 11th time in the Finals with the Celtics taking eight of those meetings.

The Celtics will again be the favorites, going 2-0 against the Lakers during the regular season and 25-5 against the Western Conference in the process. Prior to a surprising loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Celtics had gone 16-0 against the West.

The Celtics also have home-court advantage in this one and have only lost once at home in the playoffs, another reason Boston will be favored to win its 17th title.