It was the second title for the Celtics in the last three seasons, they had won it in 1957 then made a trip to the Finals in '58, only to be beaten by the St. Louis Hawks. They came back in '59 with a vengeance and marched through the regular season and finished with a league best 52-20 record. The team was unstoppable as they rolled into the postseason. The Lakers on the other hand were led by Elgin Baylor, Baylor was an absolutely great player who averaged 24.9 on the year, the team finished with a 33-39 record which was the second best in the West behind the defending champion St. Louis Hawks. The Hawks posted an almost equally impressive record as the Celtics as they went 49-23, once the playoffs started records were out the window and Minneapolis made a run. After knocking out the Detroit Pistons in the first round the Lakers stunned the basketball community by beating the defending champs in 6 games which sent them to the Finals. After the Syracuse Nationals beat the New York Knicks in the first round they were set to meet the best team in the league. The Nationals didn't go down without a fight as the series went to 7 games before Boston prevailed.
It would be the first time the Celtics and the Lakers would meet in the Finals. The Celtics rolled over the Lakers in dominant fashion with the first sweep in the history of the NBA Finals. The closest the Lakers would come to winning a game was in Game 1, they lost by the score of 118-115, in the next two games they were beat by double digits. Then in the final game they put up a fight before the Celtics won it by 5 and took home the trophy.
This was the first time a losing team made it to the Finals, the only other team to did it in 1981 when the Houston Rockets made it with a 40-42 record. The Rockets much like the Lakers had their run end at the hand of the Celtics, it would take 6 games to decide that series. The 1959 Championship series was the beginning of the rivalry that still stands strong today. They have met head to head in the Finals 12 times. Boston took home the title the first 8 times, it all started with this game in 1959. The Lakers shifted to L.A. following that season and developed into one of the best teams in the west. They still couldn't get passed the Celtics as the team from Boston dominated an entire decade, they won the title every year from '59-'66, after failing to make it passed the second round in 1967 they bounced back to win it in '68 and '69.

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