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| Dates: | April 7–18 | |||||||||
| Eastern Finals: | Celtics defeated Warriors, 4–3 | |||||||||
| Western Finals: | Lakers defeated Pistons, 4–2 | |||||||||
| NBA Finals | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ← 1961 | ||||||||||
| 1963 → | ||||||||||
The 1962 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1962 NBA Playoffs, which concluded the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1961–62 season.
The best-of-seven series was played between the Western Division champion Los Angeles Lakers and the defending three-time NBA champion and Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics. This was the Celtics' sixth straight trip to the Finals, and they won the best-of-seven series in Game 7, 110–107 in overtime. It was the second time in NBA history and the most recent Finals in which the series was decided by overtime in Game 7. The only other Finals series decided in overtime in the seventh game was the 1957 Finals.
1962 NBA Playoffs[]
| Los Angeles Lakers (Western Division Champion) | Boston Celtics (Eastern Division Champion) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54–26 (.675)
1st Western, 4th Overall |
Regular season | 60–20 (.750)
1st Eastern, 1st Overall | ||
| Earned first-round bye | Division Semifinals | Earned first-round bye | ||
| Defeated the (3) Detroit Pistons, 4–2 | Division Finals | Defeated the (2) Philadelphia Warriors, 4–3 | ||
Series summary[]
| Game | Date | Away Team | Result | Home Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | April 7 | Los Angeles | 108–122 | Boston |
| Game 2 | April 8 | Los Angeles | 129–122 | Boston |
| Game 3 | April 10 | Boston | 115–117 | Los Angeles |
| Game 4 | April 11 | Boston | 115–103 | Los Angeles |
| Game 5 | April 14 | Los Angeles | 126–121 | Boston |
| Game 6 | April 16 | Boston | 119–105 | Los Angeles |
| Game 7 | April 18 | Los Angeles | 107–110 (OT) | Boston |
Records[]
During the series, Lakers forward Elgin Baylor scored a Finals record 61 points in Game 5 and 284 points total in the series. Celtics center Bill Russell set a still-standing record for rebounds in a 7-game series with 189, and tied his own record for rebounds in a single game with 40 in Game 7.
The Lakers' potential championship-winner bounces off the rim[]
In the last 5 seconds of regulation in Game 7, Laker Frank Selvy had a golden opportunity to become the hero and win the championship for Los Angeles and end the Celtics dynasty.
The Lakers faced a four-point deficit in the final minute of the game's fourth quarter. Selvy then proceeded to secure two crucial rebounds and score two baskets to tie the game at 100. However, he lost his chance for the ultimate heroic moment as he missed a 12-foot jump shot right before the buzzer that would have secured the championship for the Lakers had it gone in. The miss sent the game to overtime, where the Celtics prevailed in this, the second of seven NBA Finals match-ups between Boston and Los Angeles over the course of eleven seasons.
Regrettably for Selvy, his missed shot gained even larger significance as those years went by because the Lakers ultimately lost every one of those championship battles with the Celtics, thus magnifying the pain of Los Angeles having lost a golden opportunity, with Selvy's shot, to end that streak of futility before it had even begun. (The Lakers, while still playing in Minneapolis, had lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals in 1959, as well.)
The player who initially had the ball on that final play was Rod "Hot Rod" Hundley. Hundley had in fact dreamt the night before that he would make the championship-winning shot. And further, after pump-faking his defender into the air, Hundley indeed briefly had an opening to take a shot. But rather than selfishly insisting upon attempting to play out his dream in real life, when Hundley noticed that Selvy was open for an even better shot — a shot that Selvy usually could be counted upon to make — Hundley gave up his own chance for glory and passed the ball. Selvy's miss, however, meant that Hundley's sacrifice had been for naught and that Hundley would never know if indeed he would have won the championship himself, had he taken the shot he had available. Because of this, Hundley would occasionally call Selvy and, when Selvy answered the phone, Hundley would simply say, "Nice shot!" and then hang up. For his part, Selvy has expressed some degree of irritation at Hundley's teasing.
"It was a fairly tough shot because I was almost on the baseline. But I would trade all my points for that last basket."
For the Lakers, it would start the pattern of not winning the big games in the NBA Finals, something that lasted until 1972 when the Lakers finally won their first title in Los Angeles. The Lakers would not defeat the Celtics in the NBA Finals until 1985, which they did on the Celtics' home floor in Boston Garden; they lost to the Boston Celtics in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984 and 2008. After the 1985 Finals, the Lakers would beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals again in 1987 and 2010, both times in California.
| Preceded by 1961 |
NBA Finals 1962 |
Succeeded by 1963 |