Here is the oldest clip (so far) featured in the Zone. It is a snippet of game 1 of the 1965 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. With Boston coming off the dramatic game 7 against the 76ers (with the famous "Havlicek stole the ball!" play), the Lakers proved to be no match for the defending champs; they lost this game 142-110, en route to a five game series loss.

In honor of my profile of Dennis Johnson, here is CBS' intro to game 6 of the 1986 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Houston Rockets. Please note that because this came from the NBA's re-release of this Final, the video segment on CBS' original airing that showed the Ralph Sampson/Jerry Sichting brawl is omitted. The Celtics rolled over the Rockets 114-97 to win their 16th NBA title. They wouldn't win another title for 22 years, so this really marked the end of an era for Celtics basketball.

Another two video day in the Zone! The second video today is CBS' intro to game 3 of the 1984 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. This intro features two steals; the famous "Havlicek stole the ball!" steal from 1965, and Gerald Henderson's steal to help force overtime in game 2 of this series. Despite the defense on display here, it was the Lakers' offense on full display in this game; L.A blew out the Celtics 137-104 to take a 2-1 series lead. It was after this game that Larry Bird called himself and his teammates 'sissys", and that inspired Boston to an eventual seven game series triumph and their 15th NBA title.

This is the intro to game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. L.A. overcame a big first-half hole to win 107-106 on Magic Johnson's famous junior sky-hook shot (that will be the next clip here, and btw, the Oscar Robertson profile will be tomorrow). Enjoy!

Here is the first Youtube video on this link. It's the intro to game one of the 1984 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Note the change in CBS' intro; instead of the traditional Brent Musburger intro playing admist the theme, his intro goes under a different score, and then the classic CBS theme plays in warp speed mode. And Brent makes a mistake when he says Tom Heinsohn played in the previous Finals between the teams in 1969 (Heinsohn retired in 1965). But this a very cool intro!: