NBA Tournament of Champions: Larry Bird Bracket First Round

The 1980's were a fun decade for basketball, weren't they? Granted, I was only around for less than 40 days of the 80's but still. Those Bird/Magic duels made for great theater, and hopefully this tournament idea is making for great theater for you.

Larry Bird gets two of his title teams into his namesake bracket, and gets a rivalry matchup for one of them. That all comes after the jump. As a reminder, these series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court advantage being decided by overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are once again provided by WhatIfSports.com. You ready? I am.


'94 Houston Rockets (73-32) vs '51 Rochester Royals (50-32)*
Game 1: '51 Royals 94, @ '94 Rockets 90 (ROC leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '94 Rockets 83, '51 Royals 81 (Series tied 1-1)
Game 3: '94 Rockets 101, @ '51 Royals 68 (HOU leads 2-1)
Game 4: '94 Rockets 103, @ '51 Royals 66 (HOU leads 3-1)
Game 5: @ '94 Rockets 95, '51 Royals 76 (HOU wins 4-1)
*WhatIfSports does not go back to the 1951 season, so the '52 Royals were used instead.
Arnie Risen did a fair amount of damage in Game 1 to pull a big road win, but then Hakeen decided he'd had enough. He took over with solid double-doubles the rest of the series (including the eventual game-winning bucket in Game 2) and Rochester didn't have the firepower to keep up.

'88 Los Angeles Lakers (77-29) vs '81 Boston Celtics (74-25)
Game 1: @ '81 Celtics 116, '88 Lakers 105 (BOS leads 1-0) 
Game 2: @ '81 Celtics 115, '88 Lakers 105 (BOS leads 2-0)
Game 3: @ '88 Lakers 120, '81 Celtics 115 (BOS leads 2-1)
Game 4: @ '88 Lakers 122, '81 Celtics 111 (Series tied 2-2)
Game 5: '88 Lakers 105, @ '81 Celtics 89 (LAL leads 3-2)
Game 6: @ '88 Lakers 118, '81 Celtics 109 (LAL wins 4-2)
It seems only fitting that a Lakers-Celtics series featuring 80's champions would be a good one. Not really any "tight" games in the sense of going straight to the wire, but all pretty competitive. Larry Bird got hot in Games 2 and 3, but the backcourt of the Lakers took over from Game 3 on. Magic was scoring and assisting pretty much at will,a nd Byron Scott was putting up strong outings. Scott scored 29 in the clincher, but you could argue it was Magic's triple-double that led the way.

'86 Boston Celtics (82-18) vs '02 Los Angeles Lakers (73-28)
Game 1: @ '86 Celtics 110, '02 Lakers 100 (BOS leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '86 Celtics 105, '02 Lakers 95 (BOS leads 2-0)
Game 3: '86 Celtics 111, @ '02 Lakers 100 (BOS leads 3-0)
Game 4: @ '02 Lakers 107, '86 Celtics 104 (BOS leads 3-1)
Game 5: @ '86 Celtics 114, '02 Lakers 85 (BOS wins 4-1)
The 1986 Celtics are widely regarded as one of the best teams ever, and they showed why in this series. Larry Bird did everything for this Celtics squad, including a Game 2 triple-double (and nearly another in Game 4 along with a missed 3 at the buzzer that would have forced overtime). A lot of credit though also has to go to Kevin McHale, who went off in Game 1 for 33 points and really set the tone for the rest of the series. Shaq and Kobe had their moments, especially in Game 4 as Kobe's near triple double beat out Bird's, combining with Shaq for 61 points. The overall talent on Boston though was just too much.

'82 Los Angeles Lakers (69-27) vs '75 Golden State Warriors (60-39)
Game 1: @ '82 Lakers 118, '75 Warriors 107 (LAL leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '82 Lakers 121, '75 Warriors 116 (LAL leads 2-0)
Game 3: @ '75 Warriors 123, '82 Lakers 113 (LAL leads 2-1)
Game 4: @ '75 Warriors 118, '82 Lakers 109 (Series tied 2-2)
Game 5: @ '82 Lakers 120, '75 Warriors 102 (LAL leads 3-2)
Game 6: @ '75 Warriors 131, '82 Lakers 122 (OT) (Series tied 3-3)
Game 7: '75 Warriors 112, @ '82 Lakers 106 (GS wins 4-3)
Magic posted a pair of triple-doubles in this series (the Lakers went 1-1 in those games), but by and large as Rick Barry went, so went the Warriors. He really stepped up when his team needed him, scoring a majority of his team's points in the overtime of Game 6 after '82 Jamaal Wilkes hit a 3 at the buzzer to force overtime. He only scored 23 in Game 7, but the rest of his team rose to the occasion as well and mounted a comeback from 10 down to start the 4th quarter.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

We won't get another Lakers-Celtics series in the next round in this bracket, but there's that possibility in Round 3. And anytime you get a full 7 game series, you can't complain. We have one more Celtic namesake bracket left for this round with some more legendary teams, including the winningest team of all time. That one comes up tomorrow.