Basketball

After 10 years of researching Boston Celtics preseason games from 1947 through 1991, I am always surprised when I find a box score that is on my “missing” list. Recently, I found the box score for a game from October 2, 1971 against the Buffalo Braves in the Buffalo News (October 4 edition).

Therefore, it was time to post a new twelfth edition, now with 412 box scores out of a possible 426, and some changes/additions to box scores that have been included in past versions. The page below includes a list of all the changes.

Boston Celtics Preseason Games, 1946-1991

Note: I am still missing player stats for the following 14 games. There are also some other games where the score by quarters is missing, or the referees are not available, etc. This project will likely never end! (And I like it that way.)

10/13/1957 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at New Haven, CT
10/6/1959 Celtics vs. Minneapolis Lakers at Littleton, NH
10/7/1959 Celtics vs. Minneapolis Lakers at Windsor, VT
10/5/1962 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at White Plains, NY
10/6/1962 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at New Haven, CT
10/15/1962 Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons at Fort Wayne, IN
10/5/1963 Celtics vs. St. Louis Hawks at Ottumwa, Iowa
10/3/1964 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at White Plains, NY
10/2/1967 Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers at San Juan, PR
10/7/1967 Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls at East Chicago, IN
10/12/1968 Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons at Kalamazoo, MI
10/5/1969 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at Utica, NY
9/25/1971 Celtics vs. New York Knicks at Utica, NY
9/30/1971 Celtics vs. New York Nets (ABA) at Uniondale, NY

Bill Walton passed away on May 27, 2024 at the age of 71; he would have turned 72 on November 5. When examining Walton’s basketball career, it is tempting to focus on what could have been, to focus on the years lost to injuries and his acrimonious departures from Portland and Los Angeles.  But his accomplishments on the court should not be overlooked.

Walton’s truncated pro career included a few highlights (NBA title in 1977, NBA MVP award in 1978, Sixth Man of the Year award and a second NBA title in 1986) but paled in comparison with his basketball transcript at UCLA: two NCAA titles, three Final Four appearances, three-time consensus All-American, three-time UPI Player of the Year, two-time AP Player of the Year (losing out to David Thompson in 1974); averaged 20 points and 15 rebounds a game while playing under the watchful eye of the legendary John Wooden.

UCLA posted an 86-4 record during Walton’s three varsity seasons, including the majority of the Bruins’ record-setting 88-game winning streak. Walton played in 87 varsity games at UCLA, missing three during his senior season after a bad fall against Washington State. I was curious how UCLA fared during his absence, but was unable to find game logs or box scores online; the UCLA website contains box scores beginning with the 1974-75 season, too late to include Walton’s career.

So, I decided to find all of the box scores from Walton’s four years at UCLA, including his stint on the 1970-71 freshman team, plus that season’s varsity results in order to document the start of their 88-game streak. By the way, UCLA went 3-0 in Walton’s absence, and their winning streak came to an end when Walton returned to the lineup. You can read more about that in the game highlights that accompany each box score.

You can view the box scores by clicking here.

Today I posted a new edition (#11) of Barnstorming through New England: The Boston Celtics in the Preseason, 1946-1991. Thanks to the continued expansion of online newspaper archives, I was able to add 2 new box scores (10/3/1959 vs. Lakers, 10/5/1972 vs. Hawks/Maravich), to bring the total to 411 out of 426 exhibition games against pro competition from 1946 through 1991.

This edition also includes new sections containing 23 box scores for preseason games that the Celtics played against semi-pro or amateur teams, and intrasquad games that they played against themselves. Most are from the 1950’s.

There are also minor improvements to some box scores that were included in earlier editions, such as:

11/7/1947: score by periods now complete
10/11/1955: added FGA and FTA
10/10/1956: score by periods now complete
10/2/1971: score by periods more complete

Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets for winning their first NBA Championship. It has been a long road for Nuggets fans, especially for those who have been following the team since they debuted as the Denver Rockets in the ABA in the fall of 1967. Renamed the Nuggets for the 1974-75 season, the team won 60+ games in each of their final two ABA campaigns, but failed to win an ABA title.

The Nuggets lost to the New York Nets in the 1976 ABA Finals, then, along with the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, the four teams were absorbed into the NBA.

The early days of the ex-ABA clubs in the NBA were a mixed bag. The Nets were derailed by financial woes that forced them to sell Julius Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers (an ironic twist, since the Nets had only been able to acquire Erving four years earlier due to the financial woes of the Virginia Squires franchise); Indiana, coming off their worst season in the ABA, did not finish above .500 until 1981 and qualified for the playoffs just twice between 1977 and 1989. San Antonio reached the conference finals three times over the next seven seasons but never won, while Denver captured back-to-back NBA Midwest Division titles before fading.

None of them reached the NBA Finals until the Spurs won it all in 1999. The ABA refugees then went on a run, with the Pacers (2000), Nets (2002, 2003), and the Spurs (2003, 2005, 2007) all getting to the Finals during the first decade of the 21st century.

But Denver had to wait until 2023 to finally win it all.

I’m starting the new year with a minor update to a document I have been working on for about 5 years: A chronicle of a 22-game exhibition tour featuring two dozen NBA stars that took place after the completion of the 1958 NBA season.

A few days ago, I found a partial box score for the game on May 3, 1958, which was the last game on my “missing” list. The box score has some problems (see the .pdf at the link above for the details) but it is still satisfying to find it. For a few years, I wondered if this game, held in Houston, Texas, had actually been played at all.

It is easy to find newspaper accounts of most games on this tour, usually from wire services, but locating info on the May 3 contest was more difficult. The fact that the game was played on a Saturday did not help; Sunday papers traditionally had/have early deadlines, and “afternoon editions” are virtually non-existent on weekends. The final game of the tour was played on Sunday, May 4, so by the time the Monday papers were assembled, there was a newer game story to carry.