NBA 1951/52
National Basketball Association | |||
◄ previous | 1951/52 season | next ► | |
Duration | November 1, 1951 - April 25, 1952 | ||
Season games per team | 66 | ||
Number of teams | 10 | ||
Top seed | |||
Best record | Rochester Royals | ||
Top scorer | Paul Arizin ( Philadelphia Warriors ) | ||
Playoffs | |||
Eastern Division - Champion | New York Knickerbockers | ||
Western Division - Champion | Minneapolis Lakers | ||
Finals | |||
NBA champions | Minneapolis Lakers |
The 1951/52 NBA season was the sixth season of the National Basketball Association and began on November 1, 1951 and ended regularly after 330 games on March 16, 1952. The postseason began on March 18 and ended on April 25 with 4 - 3 final victories of the Minneapolis Lakers over the New York Knickerbockers .
Season Notes
- All of the ten remaining teams from the previous year ended the regular season . The Tri-Cities Blackhawks moved from the Tri-Cities Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport in Iowa to Milwaukee in Wisconsin and renamed themselves Milwaukee Hawks .
- The three-second zone was widened from two to four meters. But instead of restricting the “big men”, the broadening opened up the game and allowed a greater selection of shots.
- So did George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers on January 20, 1952 against the Rochester Royals 61 points and remained just two points behind the existing record of Joe Fulks from the year 1949. A total of 13 NBA players this feat about.
- Dolph Schayes scored 23 free throws from 27 attempts in his Syracuse Nationals game against the Minneapolis Lakers. Even if the game went into the third extra time, only eleven other players managed to do this a total of 13 times (as of 2018).
- Alex Groza and Ralph Beard of the Indianapolis Olympians , two young All-Stars last year and Olympic gold medalist from 1948 was due to the involvement in the City College of New York - betting fraud from the season 1949/50 of NBA President Maurice Podoloff banned for life .
- The second NBA All-Star Game took place on Monday, February 11, 1952 in front of 10,211 spectators again in the Boston Garden . Al Cervi won with the Eastern All-Stars 108-91 against John Kundla's Western All-Stars . The Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game was Paul Arizin of the Philadelphia Warriors . The price was introduced in 1953 and Arizin was chosen retrospectively.
Closing tables
Pl. = Rank, = qualified for the playoffs, Sp = number of games, S — N = wins and losses,% = win rate (wins divided by number of games played), GB = deficit on the leader of the division in number of wins , Home = home balance, exp. = Away balance, neuter. = Balance on neutral ground, Div. = Balance against the division opponents
Eastern Division
NBA 1951/52: Western Division in red, Eastern Division in blue. The Blackhawks move to Milwaukee. |
Pl. | team | Sp | S-N | % | GB | home | Selection | Neuter | Div. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Syracuse Nationals | 66 | 40-26 | .606 | - | 26-7 | 12-18 | 2-1 | 21-15 |
2. | Boston Celtics | 66 | 39-27 | .591 | 1 | 22-7 | 10-19 | 7-1 | 22-14 |
3. | New York Knicks | 66 | 37-29 | .561 | 3 | 21-4 | 12-22 | 4-3 | 23-13 |
4th | Philadelphia Warriors | 66 | 33-33 | .500 | 7th | 24-7 | 6-25 | 3-1 | 14-22 |
5. | Baltimore Bullets | 66 | 20-46 | .303 | 20th | 17-15 | 2-22 | 1-9 | 10-26 |
Western Division
Pl. | team | Sp | S-N | % | GB | home | Selection | Neuter | Div. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Rochester Royals | 66 | 41-25 | .621 | - | 28-5 | 12-18 | 1–2 | 22-14 |
2. | Minneapolis Lakers | 66 | 40-26 | .606 | 1 | 21-5 | 13-19 | 6-2 | 24-12 |
3. | Indianapolis Olympians | 66 | 34-32 | .515 | 7th | 25-6 | 4-24 | 5-2 | 18-18 |
4th | Fort Wayne Pistons | 66 | 29-37 | .439 | 12 | 22-11 | 6-24 | 1–2 | 17-19 |
5. | Milwaukee Hawks | 66 | 17-49 | .258 | 24 | 7-13 | 3-22 | 7-14 | 9-27 |
Leading players in individual ratings
category | player | team | value |
---|---|---|---|
Points | Paul Arizin | Philadelphia Warriors | 1674 |
Throwing Rate † | Paul Arizin | Philadelphia Warriors | 44.8% |
Free throw rate ‡ | Bobby Wanzer | Rochester Royals | 90.4% |
Assists | Andy Phillip | Philadelphia Warriors | 539 |
Rebounds |
Larry Foust Mel Hutchins |
Fort Wayne Pistons Milwaukee Hawks |
880 |
-
† 210 baskets required. Arizin took 1,222 shots and hit 548 times.
-
‡ 180 free throws required. Wanzer hit 377 out of 417.
- With 286, George Mikan committed the most fouls , leading the foul statistics for the third time in a row. Meanwhile, Don Boven of the ( Milwaukee Hawks ) was the most frequently fouled out with 18 times .
- Paul Arizin was the longest on the floor with 2939 minutes. His 1674 points averaged 25.4 points per game.
- Up until the 1968/69 season , the statistics in the categories "points", "assists" and "rebounds" were based on the overall performance and not the rate per game. With Andy Phillip that would be 8.2 assists per game and George Mikan with his 866 rebounds in 64 games would have an average of 13.5 rebounds in contrast to the 13.3 rebounds of Hutchins and Foust in 66 games each.
Honors
Playoffs tree
Division semi-finals | Division Finals | NBA finals | |||||||||||
E1 | Syracuse Nationals | 2 | |||||||||||
E4 | Philadelphia Warriors | 1 | |||||||||||
E4 | Syracuse Nationals | 1 | |||||||||||
Eastern Division | |||||||||||||
E3 | New York Knicks | 3 | |||||||||||
E2 | Boston Celtics | 1 | |||||||||||
E3 | New York Knicks | 2 | |||||||||||
E3 | New York Knicks | 3 | |||||||||||
W2 | Minneapolis Lakers | 4th | |||||||||||
W2 | Minneapolis Lakers | 2 | |||||||||||
W3 | Indianapolis Olympians | 0 | |||||||||||
W2 | Minneapolis Lakers | 3 | |||||||||||
Western Division | |||||||||||||
W1 | Rochester Royals | 1 | |||||||||||
W1 | Rochester Royals | 2 | |||||||||||
W4 | Fort Wayne Pistons | 0 |
Playoff results
The playoffs began on March 18 and were held in the division semi-finals according to the "Best of Three" mode, the Division Finals according to the "Best of Five" mode and the NBA finals according to the "Best of Seven" mode. It came to the same playoff pairings of the previous year, only in the case of the Western Division finals between Lakers and Royals with a reverse outcome. Again, New York succeeded after the regular season as the third-placed team in the division to win the division title.
Eastern Division semi-finals
New York Knickerbockers 2, Boston Celtics 1
Wednesday, March 19: Boston 105 - 94 New York
Sunday, March 23: New York 101 - 97 Boston
Wednesday, March 26: Boston 87 - 88 New York (after 2nd V. .)
Syracuse Nationals 2, Philadelphia Warriors 1
Thursday, March 20: Syracuse 102-83 Philadelphia
Saturday, March 22: Philadelphia 100-95 Syracuse
Sunday, March 23: Syracuse 84-73 Philadelphia
Western Division semi-finals
Rochester Royals 2, Fort Wayne Pistons 0
Tuesday March 18: Rochester 95-78 Fort Wayne
Thursday March 20: Fort Wayne 86-92 Rochester
Minneapolis Lakers 2, Indianapolis Indians 0
Sunday, March 23: Minneapolis 78-70 Indianapolis
Tuesday, March 25: Indianapolis 87-94 Minneapolis
Eastern Division Finals
New York Knickerbockers 3, Syracuse Nationals 2
Wednesday April 2: Syracuse 85 - 83 New York
Thursday April 3: Syracuse 102 - 92 New York
Friday April 4: New York 99 - 92 Syracuse
Tuesday April 8: New York 100-93 Syracuse
Western Division Finals
Minneapolis Lakers 3, Rochester Royals 1
Saturday, March 29: Rochester 88 - 78 Minneapolis
Sunday, March 30: Rochester 78 - 83 Minneapolis
Saturday, April 5th: Minneapolis 77 - 67 Rochester
Sunday, April 6: Minneapolis 82 - 80 Rochester
NBA finals
Minneapolis Lakers vs. New York Knickerbockers
As in the previous year, the New York Knickerbockers narrowly missed the championship. The Minneapolis Lakers underlined their dominance in recent years and should set up a small series with this championship. The Lakers 'first three home games were held in Saint Paul , Minneapolis' twin city.
The final results:
Saturday, April 12th: Minneapolis 83-79 New York (n.V.)
Sunday, April 13th: Minneapolis 72-80 New York
Wednesday, April 16th: New York 77-82 Minneapolis
Friday, April 18th: New York 90 - 89 Minneapolis (n. V.)
Sunday, April 20: Minneapolis 102 - 89 New York
Wednesday, April 23: New York 76 - 68 Minneapolis
Friday, April 25: Minneapolis 82 - 65 New York
The Minneapolis Lakers become NBA champions with 4–3 wins .
The Minneapolis Lakers championship team
Jim Pollard , Frank Saul , George Mikan , Joe Hutton , Vern Mikkelsen , Lew Hitch , Slater Martin , Howie Schultz , Bob Harrison , Whitey Skoog
Head Coach: John Kundla |
Individual evidence
- ↑ NN: Season review: 1951-52. Season Review on the NBA website; New York City, New York, March 2, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2017 (in English).
- ↑ NN: 1952 NBA All-Star Game East 108 vs West 91. At: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2017. Retrieved May 29, 2017 (in English).
- ↑ Official NBA Guide 2016-2017 , published by Bradley Weinstein on the NBA website; New York City, New York, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2017 (in English).