RealGM

Put together a team of the best players who represented the Lakers and Boston Celtics in there classic finals matchups. (No Shaq, or whoever else that never faced the Celtics in the finals) together on a team and then discuss who would win a best of 7 game series. Keep in mind these are only the players who were a part of the Lakers/Celtics Finals match ups over the years.

Heres mine.

Magic Johnson
Kobe Bryant
James Worthy
Kareem Abdul Jabber
Wilt Chamberlain

Coach: Phil Jackson

Jerry West
Elgin Baylor
Lamar Odom
Pau Gasol
Derick Fisher
Byron Scott

vs

Coach: Arnold "Red" Auerbach


Roster

Bob Cousy
Paul Pierce
Larry Bird
Kevin Garnett
Bill Russell

Tommy Heinsohn
Dennis Johnson
Kevin McHale
Ray Allen
Danny Ange
Robert Parish
Bill Walton


These are just the ones I know.. If I missed somebody please feel free to make your own teams, filling in the blanks. But before you do discuss who would win a best of 7 between those two teams.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/fe ... lineup/bos


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/fe ... lineup/lal

Why would you put Danny Ainge and Ray Allen instead of Sam Jones and John Havlicek?

JordansBulls wrote:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/features/nbaLineup?page=lineup/bos


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/fe ... lineup/lal

some of those players didn't play in the Finals against the other team. (Jo Jo White, Dave Cowens, Shaq, Happy Hairston)

Gotta have Coop in there if you're playing the Celtics.

Well I'd start Havlicek and not leave him off the team.

Hmm I had Havlicek there but I was switching names and going back so I must have taken him out by mistake. But he is supposed to be there. Anyways the ESPN link wasn't really needed because I stated to put the players together that you would like to see, not what ESPN or any other website may have posted. Then I said discuss who would win the games after you post your teams.

Lakers:

3-guard rotation of Magic/Kobe/West. Nobody else matters.

SF Worthy/Baylor in some order.

C/PF -- Wilt/Kareem. Depth behind that isn't so great. Gasol really is 3rd-best.

Deep pine: Michael Cooper (excellent defender), Odom, Goodrich, and the best 3rd true center available (probably Thompson).

Lakers/Celtics G6 1963 on NBA TV tonight at midnight ET... 2 hours long

I'm definitely watching that. Mainly for Bill Russell. I usually will watch anything I can on him, and especially if it's a significant amount.

no scalabrine?

Lakers would win.

Although today its the celtics as of tommorrow , game 3, game 4.

Celtics:

Well, it's hard to decide who to start, because both McHale and Havlicek PREFERRED to come off the bench. And that's not the only reason. The only obvious starters are:

C Russell
SF Bird (and he actually played combo forward)

Given the firepower on the other side, I want to make the team

C Russell (greatest defender of all time)
PF McHale (first-team all-NBA defender, and more of a post defender than Garnett)
SF Bird (second-team all-NBA defender)
SG Havlicek (defensive star)
PG DJ (defensive star)

Parish, Cowens, Garnett, and Pierce are all very good to awesome defenders off the bench. Cousy has to be the PG off the bench. Sam Jones should be there for spot sharpshooting.

Contenders for the 12th spot include Ray Allen, KC Jones (third PG, and another great defender), and Heinsohn.

chrice wrote:Gotta have Coop in there if you're playing the Celtics.

Yea I was really surprised to not see him.
He is one of my favorite players all time.

pg- Magic
sg- JWest
sf- Kobe
PF- Kareem
C- Shaq

6th man- Wilt

coach- Pat Riley

Jerry West
Derick Fisher
Gail Goodrich
Kobe Bryant
Byron Scott
Elgin Baylor
James Worthy
Magic Johnson
Vern Mikkelsen
Pau Gasol
Wilt Chamberlain
Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Head Coach: Pat Riley



Sam Jones
Tommy Heinsohn
Bill Russell
John Havlicek
Bob Cousy
Satch Sanders
Frank Ramsey
KC Jones
Clyde Lovellette
Jim Loscutoff
Larry Bird
Kevin Garnett

Head Coach: Red Auerbach

Baylor ahead of Worthy easily. Especially if we're talking pre-injury.

I'd take West over Bryant at the 2 spot, but it's definitely debatable, unlike Baylor/Worthy. Or play both of them and bring Baylor and Worthy off the bench.

shawngoat23 wrote:Baylor ahead of Worthy easily. Especially if we're talking pre-injury.

I'd take West over Bryant at the 2 spot, but it's definitely debatable, unlike Baylor/Worthy. Or play both of them and bring Baylor and Worthy off the bench.

Yeah. Definitely agree.

I'd go with Magic, West, Kobe, Baylor, and Wilt in the starting lineup. Baylor and Magic would guard the forwards while West and Kobe would get the guards. Wilt against Russell of course.

Magic and Kobe would get into a fight on who takes the last shot

I could imagine West would be at the scores table waiting to check in because both of them are still fighting.

Then calmly knocks down the 17 footer to win the the game.

The Lakers have had more greats, but the Celtics have had more depth with their teams. Something like this would favor the Lakers so I think they'd win. On the other hand, if you put 15 of their best players against each other where the reserves had to play a quarter each, I think the Celtics would win. The Lakers have probably at least half of the ten greatest players of all time, while the Celtics have only two.

pg- Magic
sg- JWest
sf- Kobe
PF- Kareem
C- Shaq

6th man- Wilt

coach- Pat Riley

Only players who were a part of the Boston Celtics/Los Angeles Lakers NBA Finals matchups. Shaq never took part in any of those games,

Side Note:
Thanks to the Nets who just had to beat the Celtics in the ECF in 2002 and then end up getting swept lol.