Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Today In... The Social Distancing Edition

It's been too long since I posted here and thanks to the Corona virus, it's a great time to take this blog out of mothballs for a bit. Today, we will check out a few historical games in the NBA on St. Patrick's Day. Let's have some fun.

Today in:

1954 - The Syracuse Nationals (now Philadelphia 76ers) edged the Boston Celtics 96-95 in their first game of the NBA Playoffs. Hall of Famer Bob Cousy led all scorers with 32 points for the Celtics. Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes led Syracuse with 20. Other Hall of Famers in this game were Earl Lloyd for Syracuse, and Ed Macauley, Bill Sharman, Chuck Cooper, and Don Barksdale for Boston. The Nationals would go on to sweep the Celtics 4-0 in the round-robin competition and go on to lose to the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA Finals.

1962 - NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson scored 33 points and led the Cincinnati Royals to a decisive victory over the Detroit Pistons 129-107. Don Ohl and Gene Shue each scored 18 points in for the Pistons while Bob Boozer scored 26 for Cincy. Detroit finished the season in 3rd place in the Western Division with a 37-43 record while the Royals finished in 2nd place in the Western Division with a 43-37 record. Both teams made the playoffs and faced each other in the Western Semi-finals. The Pistons won the series 3-1 and went on to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Division Finals 4-2.

1975 - In an ABA game on this day, the New York Nets beat the Indiana Pacers 124-116. Hall of Famer George McGinnis led all scorers with 34 for the Pacers while Larry Kenon led the Nets in scoring with 32 points. Hall of Famer Dr. J, Julius Erving scored 24 for the Nets. Indiana went on to finish in 3rd place in the ABA Western Division with a 45-39 record and went on to play in the ABA Finals. They lost to the Kentucky Colonels 4-1. New York finished at 58-26, 2nd in the ABA Eastern Division and lost in the Semi-Finals round to the Spirits of St. Louis 4-1. Neither the Spirits of St. Louis nor the 1974-75 ABA Champion Kentucky Colonels survived the merger with the NBA in 1976.

1986 - Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars led the Detroit Pistons into the Salt Palace Arena against Hall of Famers Adrian Dantley and Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz. In a nail-biter, the Jazz squeaked past the Pistons 107-106. Thomas led all scorers with 32 points. Bill Laimbeer had 26. Dantley led the Jazz with 35 points. A side note, Hall of Famer, John Stockton, played as a reserve for Utah. It was his second season in the NBA. The Jazz improved to 34-35 and the Pistons fell to 40-29. Each team made the playoffs with Detroit losing in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks 3-1 and Utah also losing in the first round to the Dallas Mavericks 3-1.

1993 - In another nail-biter, Hall of Famer, The Admiral, David Robinson led the San Antonio Spurs over Hall of Famer, James Worthy, and the Los Angeles Lakers 101-100. Robinson led all scorers with 29 and Hall of Famer, Vlade Divac, led the Lakers with 23. The Lakers fell to 33-29 and the Spurs improved to 39-22. Both teams made the playoffs and both were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in succeeding rounds. The Lakers were eliminated 3-2 in the first round and the Spurs were eliminated in the SemipFinals 4-2.

2007 -The Golden State Warriors invaded the Key Arena to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), 99-98. Hall of Famer Ray Allen of the Supersonics led all scorers with 25. Jason Richardson led the Warriors with 23. Golden State improved to 32-36 and Seattle fell to 25-40. The SuperSonics finished the season at 31-51 and missed the playoffs. Golden State finished at 42-40 and made the playoffs and lost to the Jazz in the Western Semi-Finals 4-1.

2013 - The Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) and held on to win 97-95. Derrick Williams led all scorers with 28 for the Timberwolves. Greivis Vasquez led New Orleans with 24. Minnesota improved to 23-41 and New Orleans fell to 22-45. Neither team made the playoffs that season.

If you want the complete stats to all of these games and more, go to Basketball Reference.com

Have a great St. Patrick's Day!!!