This One's For SouthBeach

[Mr Feeny]

[Mr Feeny]

THIS is what a top 2-3 GOAT looks like

"Iggy with a layup. ..Oh BLOCKED by James! Lebron james with the rejection!"
"That's it! It's over ! Cleveland is a city of champions again. Lebron james has done it! "

[Mr Feeny]

WOW, thats a great way to summarize it!


I agree 100%

I wrote that myself btw! Totally did NOT just copy paste it from another great poster on this site "

[LAZERUSS]

In the '69 Finals his team blew a 2-0 & 3-2 lead, as Wilt went from averaging 21 ppg in the regular season to 12 ppg in the Finals, one of the biggest drop offs in history up there with 2011 LeBron & Curry this year. With a chance to go up 3-1 in Game 4, Wilt scored 8 points in a 1 point defeat, and again With a chance to clinch the title in Game 6, Wilt scored 8 points, and somehow lost a Game 7 at home with West dropping a 40 point triple double and winning FMVP in a series LOSS.

Most all of this has been covered in other topics in the last couple of days, but here goes...

And save myself some time here...

The Lakers were again headed to the Finals. This would be there sixth trip in eight years, and for the first time, they came in as favorites. Why? Because they finally had an answer for Bill Russell.

Not only that, but LA, who had started the playoffs down 0-2, were coming into the Finals with eight wins in their last nine games.

Meanwhile, Boston, which had struggled all season long, and only finished 4th in their conference, were beginning to peak at the right time. They stomped Wilt's former team, the 55-27 Sixers, in the first round, 4-1 (despite Wilt's "replacements" putting up a combined 36 ppg, 20 rpg, and .510 FG% series.) Then, with Russell suddenly rising up offensively, they stunned the favored Knicks, 4-2. Russell, who had only averaged 9.9 ppg during the regular season, elevated his scoring to 16.3 ppg in that series, which included games of 21 and 25 points.

And while virtually no one gave Boston much of a chance going into the Finals, they did have one enormous advantage over LA, and that was depth. They could go go a solid nine deep, and all nine players could be productive (as we would see in the most pivotal game of the series.)

Russell continued to surprise in the post-season, and in game one, he outplayed Wilt, outscoring him, 16-15, and outrebounding Wilt, 27-23. This was totally unexpected, as Chamberlain had owned Russell durihg their six regular season H2H's.

Still, behind West's spectacular 53 points and 10 assists, the Lakers escaped with a game one win, 120-118. And even Baylor had played reasonably well, with 24 points, on 10-21 shooting.

The Lakers took firm control of the series in game two, with a 118-112 win. However, for the second consecutive game, Russell outscored and outrebounded Wilt. West was just brilliant again, with 41 points, and even Baylor played well, pouring in 32 points on a stunning 11-15 shooting.

The Lakers now led the series, 2-0, and heading back to Boston they were poised to win their first ever title in Los Angeles. And while Russell had outplayed Wilt in the first two games, no one expected that trend to continue, and with West playing at an unfathomable level, and Baylor seemingly coming out of his slump, there was now a possibilty of a Laker sweep. And how sweet would that have been for Laker fans, as well as Wilt?

Any thoughts of a sweep went down the drain in game three. Boston rebounded with a 111-105 win. Chamberlain easily outplayed Russell in that loss, outscoring him 16-11, and outrebounding him, 26-18. However, BOTH Baylor and West fell apart in the 4th quarter, shooting a combined 1-14 from the field. Baylor was particularly putrid, scoring 11 points on 4-18 shooting.

Game four would ultimately decide the series. The game was sloppily played throughout, and neither team played well offensively. Still, the Lakers had the lead, 88-87, and the ball, with 15 seconds left. For all of his incompetence, Laker head coach Butch Van Breda Kolff, made one of his two biggest coaching blunders at the worst possible time. Instead of putting the ball into "Mr. Clutch's" hands, he had Johnny Egan holding the fate of the series in his hands, instead. And the result was as expected. Egan was stripped by Em Bryant, and then Sam Jones, while falling down, banked in the game winner at the buzzer. That ONE PLAY cost the Lakers a series romp, and in fact, cost them the title.

Still, it was not all Egan's fault. Only West had played well, with a monster 40 point game on 15-30 from the field, and 10-10 from the line. Wilt had a miserable offensive game, scoring a meager 8 points, on 3-8 from the field, and 2-11 from the line. However, his counterpart, Russell, was no better, as he only scored 6 points on 2-12 from the field, and 2-4 from the line. Furthermore, Wilt outrebounded him, 31-29. No, the real blame lied in the play of Baylor. Baylor scored a pathetic 5 points, on a horrific 2-14 shooting from the field, AND 1-5 from the line.

The Lakers stormed back on their home floor in game five, with a solid 117-104 win. Chamberlain waxed Russell in this game, outscoring him 13-7, and outrebounding him, 31-13. West poured in 39 points, and even Egan finally made a contribution with 23 points. However, Baylor once again struggled, scoring 8 points on 4-13 shooting. In his last three games, Baylor had gone 10-45 from the field, or an unfathomable, ... .222 from the field.

With a chance to wrap up the series back in Boston in game six, Wilt let his team down. He played a lethargic game, and for the third time in the series, Russell outplayed him. Chamberlain scored a meager 8 points on 1-5 from the field, and was outrebounded by Russell, 19-18. West also had his worst game of the series, with 26 points on 9-19 shooting, but Baylor finally snapped back from his horrible slump with a 26 point game, on 9-18 shooting. Boston extended the series to a game seven, with a 99-90 win.

The series headed back to Los Angeles for a game seven...

Continued...

[LAZERUSS]

Continuing...

The '69 Finals were the sixth meeting in eight years between the Lakers and Celtics, but for the first time, LA had home court advantage.

Laker owner Jack Kent Cooke was so confident that his Lakers would win their first ever title in Los Angeles, that he hung "victory" balloons from the rafters, and had champagne on ice in the dressing room.

If Boston needed an additional motivation, that was it. Russell pointed out the balloons to his teammates, and from the opening tap, the proud Celtics took control of the game. By late in the third period they had opened up a 15 point lead. To make matters even worse, Chamberlain picked up his 5th personal foul before the end of the quarter.

And when Boston extended the lead to 17 with a little over 10 minutes left, all looked bleak for LA. Then Russell picked up HIS 5th personal foul. For all the undeserved criticism Wilt received for his supposed weak play with five fouls, which was just ridiculous, since he seldom even committed even three in a game...how about Russell? Immediately after Russell picked up his 5th foul, the Lakers went into Wilt, who went right around the "matador" defense of Russell for an easy layin.

Alas, with BVK's coaching, Wilt did not receive the ball in the low post again. Shortly after Russell's 5th personal, Sam Jones fouled out. Jones had been brilliant in his final game of his career, with 24 points, on 10-16 shooting. And with Russell in hiding the rest of the game, the Lakers surged back. With six minutes remaining, Wilt grabbed a rebound that led to a fast break basket, and the margin was now nine. However, Chamberlain had landed awkwardly, and injured his knee. He stayed in long enough to grab another rebound, and his outlet to West led to a foul. Wilt had to come out. West hit both FTs, and with deficit was now seven. In a span of a little over four minutes, the Lakers had outscored the Celtics by 10 points. Boston was now clearly running on fumes.

LA continued to cut into the deficit, and with about three minutes remaining, Wilt asked to go back in. Van Breda Kolff would make the worst coaching decision of his career. He kept Wilt on the bench, and instead rode the great Mel f***ing Counts down the stretch. Still, LA cut the margin to 103-102 late. Then, with Counts missing a wide open shot, and then committing a horrible turnover in the last minute, and with Boston getting yet another miracle shot, this time from Don Nelson, the Celtics escaped with a 108-106 win, and yet another bitter defeat for LA.

Chamberlain badly outplayed Russell in the game. He outscored him, 18-6; he outshot him, 7-8 to 2-7; and he outrebounded him, 27-21. He also had 10 blocked shots, for an 18-27-10 triple double. And for those that blame Wilt's FT shooting...he had the highest TS% in that game seven, at .621 (and Russell was near the bottom at .333.) And while Wilt was on the bench in the last five minutes of the game, Russell was nowhere to be found in the entire 4th quarter. In fact, Chamberlain, on an injured knee, and in two straight possessions, had matched Russell's entire rebounding for the 4th quarter (and Wilt, playing five minutes less in that period, outrebounded him, 7-2.)

Boston did get great play from Sam Jones, but their real hero was John Havlicek, with his 26 points on 11-19 shooting. And as I pointed out earlier, the Boston "role" players came up huge. Nelson not only hit the game-winner, he kicked in with 16 points. And Em Bryant, one of the heroes in the game four win, poured in 20 points.

Meanwhile on the LA side, there was blame to go all around. West had played brilliantly, as he did the entire series, scoring 42 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and handing out 12 assists, but even he missed 4 FTs, two in the last period, and overall, shot 14-29 from the field. Of course, no one played worse than Baylor, who shot 8-22 from the field, and overall, "led" LA as their worst shooter in the post-season (.385.)

Of course, the real blame for the Laker loss lay directly on the shoulders of Van Breda Kolff. He repeatedly made coaching blunders the entire series, and his stubborn disdain for Wilt, not only cost LA a title, but basically his coaching career, as well. When West found out what had transpired in the last few minutes, he was furious. VBK quickly "resigned" before suffering the embarrassment of a well deserved firing.

Russell, who once again, was a non-factor in the 4th period, shocked Wilt when he claimed that "nothing short of a broken leg would have kept me out", (albeit, he had an injured ankle in the '58 series, and missed two games.) Chamberlain was deeply hurt, and the two did not speak for many years, until Russell finally apologized both in private, and then in public.

Of the several close losses that Wilt had had in his NBA career, this one was the worst. He had a roster, that was on paper anyway, better than the aging roster that Russell had. And while Havlicek probably deserved the FMVP as much as West, West had been sensational in the series. For the first time in Wilt's career, he was not the best player on the floor, and in fact, he had a teammate that was...and he still came up short.

[LAZERUSS]

Most rational Wilt fans will concede that the '69 Finals was Wilt's worst post-season series of his career. Had he put up even a near-routine game six, LA would have won the Finals.

Of course, as pointed out previously, there has never been a worse coaching debacle in NBA Finals history, than what the "Butcher" put up in '69. And his hatred for Wilt started even before the season began. He went to Wilt and asked Chamberlain to play the high post, so that Elgin would be able to drive the baseline.

And while the "bashers" always call Wilt a "selfish stats-padder"...it was interesting that no one sacrificed more of his offense of the West-Baylor-Wilt trio...than Chamberlain.

And this was the classic comment from the incompetent coach...

https://books.google.com/books?id=9B...20post&f=false

"So we were able to throw the ball down low to Wilt and he'd score, but it was an ugly offense to watch."

Instead, VBK preferred the shot-jacking of Baylor, who put up one of the worst Finals in NBA history by a Top-25 player...shooting .397 from the floor (and a team worst .385 in the entire post-season)...including games of 4-18 shooting in a game three six point loss (BTW, Elgin and West combined to shoot 1-14 in the 4th quarter of that game); 2-14 from the field, and yes, 1-6 from the line, in a game four one point loss; and then a game seven of 8-22 from the field, and couldn't hit anything in the last quarter, of a two point loss.

And, as mentioned earlier, aside from keeping Wilt on the bench in the last five minutes of that game seven (and after Chamberlain helped key a run in which the Lakers wiped out 10 points from a 17 point deficit in a little over four minutes)...VBK's biggest coaching blunder occurred in the last seconds of game four. The Lakers were leading the series, 2-1, and leading in the game, 88-87, and had the ball. You would think that VBK would have put the ball into "Mr. Clutch's" hands in that last possession. Nope...he had Johnny Egan handling it, and as expected, he was stripped, and then with no time on the clock, Sam Jones, while falling down, hit the game-winning shot. And in game five, with Chamberlain easily outplaying Russell, in a 117-104 win...had Egan not lost the ball on that ONE PLAY... the Lakers would have won the series in game five.

As for Wilt's scoring...

Was it because he couldn't score...or was it because he didn't get the ball to shoot? Just earlier in the same season, he hung a 35 point game on Russell. And of course, historically, he had multiple post-season series against Russell of 30+ ppg (and multiple post-season games of 40+, including must win games of 46 and even 50 against Russell.) And yet...he only averaged EIGHT FGAs per game in that series (and hit 50% of them.) In any case, as Psileas pointed out...Wilt wasn't brick-laying in the series. He wasn't pulling an '04 Kobe, or an '07 Lebron...neither of whom could hit the broadside of a barn in those series...albeit they still fired away.

Interesting too, that in the 4th quarter of game seven, which is on YouTube BTW, at about the 10-11 minute mark, Russell picked up his 5th personal foul. The Lakers immediately went into Wilt, who went right away the "matador" defense of Russell for an easy layin (BTW, I always found it laughable that Wilt would get ripped for "not playing defense with 5 fouls...which he clearly did even in this game...but Russell "played smart" when he was in foul trouble.) Why was that one sequence interesting, you ask? Because it was basically the last time Wilt would touch the ball anywhere near the basket. Instead of milking a sure thing...VBK let West, and the brick-laying Baylor take all the shots down the stretch.

Finally...after VBK resigned (and saving himself the embarrassment of being summarily fired), the Lakers brought in a new coach for the '69-70 season...Joe Mullaney.

After reviewing the coaching debacle in the '69 season, Mullaney's first order of business was to ask WILT to become the focal point of the offense. And a rejuvented Chamberlain immediately went on a season opening nine game rampage (games of 33, 35, 37, 38, 42, and 43 points...and 25 point game against rookie KAJ in which he outplayed him in every facet of the game.)

And Wilt was leading the league in scoring at that point, at 32.2 ppg (on a .579 FG%, all while pulling down 20.6 rpg)...(oh, and West was right behind at 30.8 ppg too)...when he shredded his knee in the 28th minute of that game nine (the same knee that he had injured in the last five minutes of game seven of the '69 Finals BTW.) Incidently, in those 28 minutes, he had scored 33 points, on 13-14 shooting, and was likely on his way to a 40 or even 50 point game (a 50 point game would have pushed his ppg average up to 34.0 ppg.)

The greatest offensive force in the history of the game...would never be the same again...

continued...

[Mr Feeny]

OP did you know....that Lebron had more 40 point finals games in 3 days than Kobe had in 20 years?

[Lebronxrings]

[Paul George 24]

DUNCAN >>>>>>>>>>>> LEBRON

[LAZERUSS]

OP did you know....that Lebron had more 40 point finals games in 3 days than Kobe had in 20 years?

OP...did you know that Feeble above lost a bet in which he pledged that he would leave this forum forever, and yet, still posts his repeated garbage here?

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...63&postcount=6

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...77&postcount=7

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...30&postcount=8


BTW, interesting too, that in that bet, he had all but given up on his boy LeChoke in that Finals, and threw all his eggs into Chokurry's basket...

and then watched in horror as Chokurry put the up the worst Finals in NBA history by a reigning MVP.

A Finals performance that was only "topped" by 3" LeChoke's '07 Finals.

[Mr Feeny]

Not at all.
I bet that Kobe wouldn't shoot 38% and he didn't. Didnt bother not cared enough to read any of your posts.
So you could leave the forum if you want.

I most definitely never gave up on lebron. I didn't think it was possible to beat a 73 win single handedly by leading both finalists in every category because not even MJ was able to do that. Even we were surprised by just how majestic lebron was in the finals.

Now there is no debate. Lebron is a top 3 goat.

Either way I'm happy cuz lebron is a top 3 goat!



Also OP did you know....that Lebron had more 40 point finals games in 3 days than Kobe had in 20 years?