NBA: Milwaukee Bucks On Verge Of Rare Feat
By Phil Watson
1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers
The Minneapolis Lakers were the NBA’s first dynasty, riding the back of center George Mikan to five NBA titles in six seasons from 1949-54.
With Mikan as coach in 1957-58, the Lakers stumbled to a 9-30 start and he was fired, with former coach John Kundla—who had coached the team for 10 seasons before taking over as the team’s general manager.
Things didn’t get much better for the Lakers, who finished 19-53—14 games out of the last playoff spot in the Western Division.
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But, alas, this was the era in which the NBA played 72 games to eliminate two teams from the playoffs and the Lakers took Elgin Baylor, who had led the University of Seattle to the NCAA title game, with the first overall pick.
With Baylor taking Rookie of the Year honors with his averages of 24.9 points and 15 rebounds a game, the Lakers improved to 33-39, good enough to take second in the West behind the defending champion St. Louis Hawks (16 games behind the defending champion Hawks, but second nonetheless).
The Lakers dispatched the Detroit Pistons 129-102 in Game 3 of the Western Division Semifinals at the Minneapolis Auditorium to close out the series and advanced to face the Hawks, who had a bye, in the division finals.
The Hawks and Lakers played to a 2-2 draw through the first four games, with the home team winning each game. St. Louis won 124-90 in Game 1 and 127-97 in Game 3, with Minneapolis holding serve with 106-98 and 108-98 wins in Games 2 and 4, respectively.
The series turned in Game 5, when the Lakers shocked the Hawks at Kiel Auditorium 98-97, and Minneapolis closed it out at home in Game 6, 106-104.
Against the Boston Celtics, who had reached the last two NBA Finals, winning in 1957 before losing to St. Louis the next season, it was no contest. Boston swept the series behind 24.3 points a game from Tom Heinsohn and 29.5 rebounds per night from Bill Russell.
Baylor averaged 22.8 and 11.8 in the four games and Vern Mikkelsen put up 21 and 12, but the Lakers lost Game 1 at Boston Garden 118-115 and were never really in the series afterward.
It was the start of pretty good things for both teams. The Lakers, who moved to Los Angeles after the 1959-60 season, made the playoffs in each of the next 15 seasons and won a title in 1972.
The Celtics? The 1959 title wound up being the first of their record eight straight championships—with five of them coming through the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
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