Lex Nihil Novi - Chamberlain Goes for 43 and Still Loses

Something new.  Let's see what kind of a reaction we get from the board.

btw, 'Lex Nihil Novi' is latin for "Law of Nothing New'.



December 26, 1962

Wilt wins scoring battle 43-8, but loses game.






bob


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That was the Celtics team that included nine Hall of Famers (incl. Satch although he was inducted as a contributor) plus a Hall of Fame coach.  In fact, except for what must have been a tiny cameo (or even possibly a DNP) for Jack "The Shot" Foley, only future hall-of-famers played for the Celtics in that game.

One can see that Clyde Lovellette wasn't just some hasbeen playing out the string, as Clyde outscored the guy for whom he was a backup (Russ 8, Clyde 10), although Russ obviously played most of the minutes at the center position.  It's possible that Clyde played a forward position with Russell, but there's a low probability of that because the Warriors' forwards were smaller and more agile than Clyde.  So Wilt didn't outscore the opposing center 43-8; he outscored the opposing centers 43-18 (not such a difference).

Every Celtic except Foley got at least 7 points, which is why their six guys in double figures could beat San Fran's five guys in double figures topped by Chamberlain's 42.  Except for Gary Phillips (8 points), everyone who played for S.F. either hit double figures or scored no more than 3 points.  All or nothing; a rather typical Chamberlain team.

Future Celtics Willie Naulls, ex of the Knicks, played for S.F. in this one.  Also of note is that one of the most overlooked and underrated great point guards, Guy Rodgers, went west with the Philly Warriors to become a San Francisco Warrior.  (The Syracuse franchise then moved to Philly and became the 76ers.)  I'd love to know who won the assist battle between Cousy (in his last season) and Rodgers)—much more interesting to me than the predictable and meaningless Russ-Wilt points "battle." By the way, Guy and Bill Cosby grew up together, and Guy was the model for a character named "Cooty Brown" in the Fat Albert series. You can only learn essential stuff like this on Sam's Celtics Forum.

In those days of all-too-tepid support of the Celtics, the fact that they sold out the Garden for a December game (albeit the day after Christmas) bears testimony to the draw of Russell vs. Chamberlain.

I'm wondering about the penciled-in figures.  I doubt they were assists because none were recorded for Cousy and only 2 for Rodgers.

Nice post, BobH

Sam

Sam

Wondered about those written numbers myself, can't be fouls as Wilt never fouled out,

As they are written next to the foul shots...wonder if they are missed foul shots? Other than that have no clue.

beat

Bob, Sam

Just checked a couple other things. Wilt averaged 44.8 PPG that season, plus the SF Warriors were pretty poor finishing 4th in the 5 team west and going 31-49. Betcha Wilt lost a lot of games scoring more than in this game.

Still can't locate anything as to what those written numbers could be...suppose aside from missed foul shots (Wilt shot 59% that season Russ shot 55%) they could be blocks as that was not kept as an "official" stat till many years later and Russ with 5 and Wilt 6, is certainly "plausable".

beat

Beat,

Missed freebies sounds as good as any other explanation for the written numbers. Good thinking!

Sam