By admin 
Look at the lineups from Game 2 of the 1987 NBA Finals and you see a group of players who still rank among the most potent offensive weapons in the game. Larry Bird. Kevin McHale. Magic Johnson. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. James Worthy.
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Every one of those guys could put up north of 20 points on any given night, even with the pressure at its highest, like it was back then.
Michael Cooper? He, far from that kind of scorer, was coming off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers that game. The former 6’7″ guard made his money on defense. Stellar defense, that was.
Keep both of those things in mind when you remember that it was he, of all people, who shone as a scorer that night. So much so that Coop actually set an NBA Finals record at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Cooper’s shooting night stole Game 2
Cooper was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. When that happened, the praise poured in. Most of it focused on the side of the court where he made his biggest impact. The one that earned him five All-Defensive First Team selections and the 1987 DPOY award.
But buried a little in all that praise was one line about his occasional flashes on offense. To find it, you have to look at what Magic Johnson said about his former teammate making the Hall. More specifically, you have to look at what Magic said about Mike’s performance in Game 2 of that 1987 Finals matchup.
The series had started with a win for the Lakers against the Boston Celtics. The Purple & Gold wanted to keep that momentum going and needed everything from everyone on Pat Riley’s roster. Turns out it was Cooper who arguably shone brightest that night. A career 34.0 percent three-point shooter, he did it by hitting six shots from downtown. Decades later, Magic emphasized that much, stating, “He blew Game 2 wide open.”
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Stephen Curry eventually claimed the record
Cooper’s biggest three-point outing? Up to that point, it actually hadn’t been all that far back. A few months earlier, he’d connected on five threes in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Had anyone expected the defensive stalwart to do the same when the Lakers faced the Celtics for Game 2? Not really. Didn’t matter, though, because
Magic, for his part, didn’t forget about any of it. The point guard icon recounted how on every shot Coop made, Purple & Gold fans in the stands were “cheering for him.” They were eager to push the 1978 draft pick so he’d “make another one.”
Johnson himself knows a thing or two about records. That’s why he emphasized just how big it was that Cooper set a record of his own right there and then, becoming the player with the most three-pointers made in a single Finals game. It was especially noteworthy, as Magic pointed out, because Mike hit those shots not in some random regular-season game but on the biggest stage there is.
It was one of many reasons why Coop deserved his HoF recognition. The same recognition Magic said he was so “happy” his former teammate, whom he called his boy, received.
Both ultimately played 11 seasons together. They won five rings as part of the Showtime Lakers.
As for the record itself, Stephen Curry (who else, really?) owns it now with nine. He set it in Game 2 of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 2:18 PM.