INTRODUCTION from The Sports Time Traveler™
The Sports Time Traveler™ is closely following the 1973 NBA Playoffs. There are many exciting storylines as the NBA champions from each of the past 4 years were all favorites to reach their conference finals (the NBA’s version of the Final Four).
In the 1st round, the least likely of the four, The New York Knickerbockers, dominated the Baltimore Bullets 4 games to 1. The Bullets defense was no match for the sharp shooting Knicks who suddenly performed to perfection after a late season slump.
Meanwhile the other “champions” all struggled. The Boston Celtics, which set a franchise record going 68 - 14 in the regular season, were losing late in game 6 to the upstart Atlanta Hawks, led by Pete Maravich, but the Celtics pulled out a victory to take that series 4 games to 2.
The Milwaukee Bucks, led by Kareem Abdul Jabbar, won both games 1 and 3 by 20 points against the Golden State Warriors and seemed on their way to an easy 5 or 6 game series, especially when Warriors star Rick Barry went down with a badly sprained ankle and missed the 2nd half of game 3. But then strange things happened. Barry came back for game 4 and poured in 38, while forward Clyde Lee grabbed 21 rebounds and Golden State evened the series at 2.
Then came a debacle. Milwaukee could not use their arena for game 5 as it had been previously booked for an exhibition. How could the Bucks, the 1971 champions, and the team with the best record in the NBA over the past 4 seasons, not have their own arena booked for potential playoff games throughout the playoffs? But that’s what happened. So the Bucks had to move the game 80 miles west to the University of Wisconsin fieldhouse in Madison.
Then an April blizzard blanketed the midwest. The Warriors had gotten in their practice at the fieldhouse before the snow got bad. But the Bucks had to cancel their practice. This led the Bucks to ask the NBA to postpone the next day’s game as the lack of practice would mean having to play on an unfamiliar court, when their opponent already had a chance to play there. And the weather situation would mean most of their fans wouldn’t be able to travel the 80 miles to the game.
The NBA denied the request. Game on.
The Warriors ran up an 18 point lead at the University of Wisconsin Fieldhouse, then gave it all back and fell a point behind with 2 minutes to play. That’s when reserve point guard Mahdi Abdul Rahman (formerly Walt Hazzard) came to the rescue. With Rick Barry suffering through an awful game (3 for 12 from the field) Rahman’s cool shooting and team leadership in the last 2 minutes led the Warriors to a 3 point win and a 3 games to 2 lead in the series.
Back in Oakland for game 6, the bewildered Bucks lost by 14. Bye Bye Bucks.
In the other Western Conference 1st round series, it was the defending champion Lakers with a record of 129 - 33 over the past 2 seasons against the gritty Chicago Bulls, a team that has won 50+ games in each of the past 3 seasons, but had never made it out of the 1st round of the playoffs.
This was another series that looked like it was headed for an early finish when the Lakers took games 1 and 2. But the scrappy Bulls won 3 of the next 4 and forced a game 7.
And that’s where things stood going into yesterday’s games.
There were two Sunday playoff games and they were both must see television:
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals with New York at Boston
Game 7 of the Western Conference 1st round with Chicago at Los Angeles
I had to make 2 virtual trips across the country on the same day to cover this one.
BOSTON, MA - April 16, 1973
The rivalry between these 2 teams is fierce. Although the Celtics were 68 - 14 and the Knicks 57 - 25, they battled for 1st place in the Atlantic division for most of the season and they split the 8 games they played against each other.
It’s also a case of Déjà vu for most fans, as the circumstances were identical last season. In 1972, the Celtics won the division at 56 - 26, while the Knicks were 2nd at 48 - 34. The teams met in the conference finals and the Knicks blew out the Celtics in game 1 on their way to a 4 games to 1 victory.
The Celtics obviously remembered that game. They came with a vengeance, playing their fast break game to perfection. The Knicks shot well early and kept it close but then things went awry. Leonard Koppett, of the New York Times, wrote, “Midway through the 2nd quarter, the famous defense collapsed completely and never revived. It was 67 - 56 at the half, 93 - 72 late in the 3rd period and 128 - 93 when all the reserves were playing for both teams.”
The final score was Celtics 134 Knicks 108. It was the kind of thrashing that is hard to recover from.
Walt Frazier was asked what went wrong by Larry Fox of the New York Daily News. Frazier said, “What went wrong? Everything. But mainly, they set the tempo early and never let up. We let them do what they wanted to on offense. And our defense was probably the worst it’s been in a long time. We’d stop them on the break and then the trailing man would come down for a shot and he’d be open for an easy one.”
It was the worst Knicks loss in 88 games this season. A real chiller.
Fortunately for the Knicks, in a quirk of the playoffs scheduling, game 2 will be played in New York. Thus the Knicks can get out of Boston and back to Madison Square Garden instead of having the prospect of another game in Boston Garden where they would likely end up down 2 - 0.
LOS ANGELES, CA - April 16, 1973
Game 7 between the Bulls and defending champion Lakers was a thriller. The scrappy Bulls had the champs on the ropes. With 3:02 to go the Bulls took a 90 - 84 lead. And with 30 seconds to go the Bulls had the ball and still led 92 - 91. Their star point guard Norm Van Lier was having a sensational game with 28 points and 14 rebounds. Most of his scoring had been via mid-range jumpers.
Van Lier’s performance was so special that Lakers forward Bill Bridges told Los Angeles Times writer Mal Florence, “He was as good tonight as John Havlicek, Jerry West and Walt Frazier.”
Wilt Chamberlain agreed with Bridges saying, “I’ve said he’s better than Nate Archibald.” (NOTE: Archibald was the NBA’s scoring and assist leader in 1973).
Van Lier controlled the ball and found some open space with 30 seconds in the game. He was 20 feet out preparing to shoot. Another basket would put the Lakers on the brink, down by 3 with less than 30 seconds to play (NOTE: there is no 3 point shot in 1973).
At this moment, Wilt Chamberlain decided to gamble. Chamberlain went out to contest Van Lier’s shot. After the game, Wilt told Mal Florence, “I didn’t want to leave the basket unprotected, but I had to do something.”
Mal Florence describes what turned out to be the play of the series, “Wilt went out on Norman at the propitious time. Van Lier tried to fire from medium range, but Chamberlain not only blocked the shot, but got the ball and let fly with a long pass to Goodrich.”
In the Chicago Tribune, Bob Logan described Chamberlain’s pass, “(Chamberlain) fed a Johnny Unitas style bomb to the sprinting Gail Goodrich who put it in for the winning points.”
Logan described the play as “the cruelest blow of all” after the Bulls had “struggled, battled, scrapped, fought and played damn good basketball.”
So the Lakers survived a game 7 thriller and will meet the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
You can see the last 30 seconds of the Lakers - Bulls game 7 and Wilt’s clutch block, grab and pass to Goodrich that sealed the series for the Lakers in this video.
The sensational sequence by Wilt Chamberlain is at the very start of the video and also at the 1:47 time stamp:
POSTSCRIPT from the The Sports Time Traveler™
Oh, what a block and pass by Wilt Chamberlain that saved the season for the Lakers!
It’s a great story that I’ve never heard about in the Chamberlain legacy.
The Sports Time Traveler™ will continue to follow the 1973 NBA Playoffs and provide you with updates when there are compelling stories to tell.
The Knicks are wearing “19” on their Unis in honor of Willis.
The 1973 NBA playoffs were on ABC. The Lakers/Grizzlies playoff game was on ABC today - with Mark Jackson (former Knicks player), Jeff van Gundy (former Knicks coach), and Mike Breen (regular Knicks broadcaster) as the broadcast team.
Both the Knicks and the Lakers won this weekend - interesting.