NBA 1955/56

National Basketball Association
◄ previous	1955/56 season		next ►
Duration		November 1, 1955 - April 7, 1956
Season games per team		72
Number of teams		8th
Top seed
Best record		Philadelphia Warriors
Season MVP		Bob Pettit ( St. Louis Hawks )
Top scorer		Bob Pettit ( St. Louis Hawks )
Playoffs
Eastern Division - Champion		Philadelphia Warriors
Western Division - Champion		Fort Wayne Pistons
Finals
NBA champions		Philadelphia Warriors

The 1955/56 NBA season was the tenth season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and began on November 1, 1955 and ended regularly after 288 games on March 14, 1956. The postseason began after two tie-breaks on the 15th and 16th March 17th of the same month and ended on April 7th with 4-1 final wins by the Philadelphia Warriors over the Fort Wayne Pistons .

Season Notes

• The Milwaukee Hawks moved to St. Louis ahead of the season . It wasn't until 1968 that an NBA franchise would return to Milwaukee with the Milwaukee Bucks .
• Dick Garmaker and Tom Gola were territorial picks for the Minneapolis Lakers and Philadelphia Warriors in the 1955 NBA Draft . In laps 1 and 2, the Rochester Royals drew Maurice Stokes and Jack Twyman in second and eighth place respectively . The first pick in the NBA draft was Dick Rickets of Duquesne University for the St. Louis Hawks.
• A new award, the NBA Most Valuable Player Award , was introduced and last year's Rookie of the Year and best scorer of the season Bob Pettit became the first winner. He should succeed in this season and the following eight seasons each over 1000 rebounds . An achievement that was only surpassed by Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain .
• Since this season, two forwards , one center and two guards have been elected to the All-NBA teams ; previously no positions were considered.
• The sixth All-Star Game took place on Tuesday, January 24, 1956 in front of 8,517 spectators at the Rochester War Memorial Coliseum in Rochester , New York . Charles Eckman's Western All-Stars defeated George Senesky's Eastern All-Stars with 108-94. All-Star Game MVP became Bob Pettit. The Eastern All-Stars Paul Arizin and Bob Cousy allowed themselves six fouls and were disqualified.

Closing tables

Pl. = Rank, = qualified for the playoffs, Sp = number of games, S – N = wins – defeats,% = win rate (wins divided by the 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

Philadelphia new York Syracuse Boston Minneapolis Rochester Fort Wayne St. Louis

NBA 1955/56: Eastern Division in blue, Western Division in red. The Hawks move from Milwaukee to St. Louis.

Pl.	team	Sp	S-N	%	GB	home	Selection	Neuter	Div.
1.	Philadelphia Warriors	72	45-27	.625	-	21-70	11-17	13-30	22-14
2.	Boston Celtics	72	39-33	.542	06th0	20-70	12-15	07-11	18-18
3.	Syracuse Nationals	72	35-37	.486	10	23-80	09-19	03–10	15-21
4th	New York Knicks	72	35-37	.486	10	14-14	15-14	06-90	17-19

Western Division

Pl.	team	Sp	S-N	%	GB	home	Selection	Neuter	Div.
1.	0Fort Wayne Pistons0	72	37-35	.514	-	19-80	10-17	08-10	19-17
2.	St. Louis Hawks	72	33-39	.458	04th0	16-10	10-17	07-12	18-18
3.	Minneapolis Lakers	72	33-39	.458	04th0	13-12	06-21	14-60	19-17
4th	Rochester Royals	72	31-41	.431	06th0	15-14	07-21	09-60	16-20

Honors

• All-Star Game MVP 1956 : Bob Pettit , St. Louis Hawks
• Rookie of the Year 1955/56 : Maurice Stokes , Rochester Royals
• Most Valuable Player 1955/56 : Bob Pettit , St. Louis Hawks

All-NBA First Team : Bob Pettit , St. Louis Hawks Paul Arizin , Philadelphia Warriors Neil Johnston , Philadelphia Warriors Bob Cousy , Boston Celtics Bill Sharman , Boston Celtics

All-NBA Second Team : Dolph Schayes , Syracuse Nationals Maurice Stokes , Rochester Royals Clyde Lovellette , Minneapolis Lakers Slater Martin , Minneapolis Lakers Jack George , Philadelphia Warriors

Leading players in individual ratings

category	player	team	value
Points	Bob Pettit	St. Louis Hawks	1849
Throwing Rate †	Neil Johnston	Philadelphia Warriors	45.7%
Free throw rate ‡	Bill Sharman	Boston Celtics	86.7%
Assists	Bob Cousy	Boston Celtics	642
Rebounds	Bob Pettit	St. Louis Hawks	1164

^† 230 baskets required. Johnston took 1,092 shots and hit 499 times, the third most common.
^‡ 190 free throws required. Sharman hit 358 out of 418.

• With 319 committed Vern Mikkelsen of the Minneapolis Lakers most fouls . He and Arnie Risen of the Boston Celtics were the most frequently fouled out with a total of 17 times . Vern Mikkelsen led between 1954 and 1957 like George Mikan before him three times in a row the foul statistics and had with 127 disqualifications in his career, the most overall in NBA history. The fastest disqualification for over 40 years was Dick Farley of the Syracuse Nationals on March 12, 1956 after five minutes. Bubba Wells undercut him by two minutes in 1997.
• Jack George of the Philadelphia Warriors was the longest on the floor with 2840 minutes in 72 games.
• Pettit's 1849 points resulted in an average of 25.7 points per game, which is the highest point rate. He had the ninth-best throw rate out of the field with 42.9%.
• 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.
• Bill Sharman, who had the best free-throw rate seven times between 1952 and 1961 - five times in a row up to 1958 - had not improved his free-throw rate compared to the previous year. Overall, ten players scored more free throws than Sharman this season.
• In addition to Bob Pettit, only Maurice Stokes had over a thousand rebounds with 1,094 . At 16.3, his rate was even one point below the decimal point above that of Pettit.

Playoffs tree

Division semi-finals

Division Finals

NBA finals

Western Division

W1

Fort Wayne Pistons

3

W2

Minneapolis Lakers

1

W3

St. Louis Hawks

2

W3

St. Louis Hawks

2

W1

Fort Wayne Pistons

1

E1

Philadelphia Warriors

4th

Eastern Division

E1

Philadelphia Warriors

3

E2

Boston Celtics

1

E3

Syracuse Nationals

2

E3

Syracuse Nationals

2

Playoff results

The playoffs began on March 17th and were played in the first round 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. The division winners had a bye in the first round.

In the Eastern Division Finals, Red Rocha made 27 fouls in five games, previously only George Mikan had managed. On March 17, in the Western Division semifinals, St. Louis threw the most free throws in a playoff game without overtime, with 54. With the Lakers' 37 free throws, there were the most free throws in a playoff game without overtime. A total of 122 free throw attempts were made between the same teams, as on March 21. On March 19, the Lakers won with the largest point advantage of a playoff encounter. Only the Nuggets achieved a 58-point lead on April 27, 2009 at the Pelicans.

George King of the Syracuse Nationals gave 60 assists, Neil Johnston got 143 rebounds and Paul Arizin got 289 points in the postseason.

Tie breaker

After the regular season, there were initially two tie-breaks that are not included in the playoff statistics. On Thursday, March 15, 1956, the New York Knickerbockers played in Syracuse for a place in the playoffs and lost. The Lakers game in St. Louis the next day was all about home rights in the first playoff round.

Thursday March 15: Syracuse 82-77 New York
Friday March 16: St. Louis 97-103 Minneapolis

Eastern Division semi-finals

Syracuse Nationals 2, Boston Celtics 1
Saturday, March 17: Boston 110-93 Syracuse
Monday, March 19: Syracuse 101-98 Boston
Wednesday, March 21: Boston 97-102 Syracuse

Western Division semi-finals

St. Louis Hawks 2, Minneapolis Lakers 1
Saturday March 17: St. Louis 116-115 Minneapolis
Monday March 19: Minneapolis 133-75 St. Louis
Wednesday March 21: Minneapolis 115-116 St. Louis

Eastern Division Finals

Philadelphia Warriors 3, Syracuse Nationals 2
Friday March 23rd: Philadelphia 109-87 Syracuse
Sunday March 25th: Syracuse 122-118 Philadelphia
Tuesday March 27th: Philadelphia 119-96 Syracuse
Wednesday March 28th: Syracuse 108-104 Philadelphia
Thursday March 29th: Philadelphia 109-104 Syracuse

Western Division Finals

Fort Wayne Pistons 3, St. Louis Hawks 2
Thursday, March 22: Fort Wayne 85-86 St. Louis
Saturday, March 24: St. Louis 84-74 Fort Wayne
Sunday, March 25: Fort Wayne 107-84 St. Louis
Tuesday March 27: St. Louis 84-93 Fort Wayne
Thursday March 29: Fort Wayne 102-97 St. Louis

NBA finals

Philadelphia Warriors vs. Fort Wayne Pistons

Final results:
Saturday March 31: Philadelphia 98-94 Fort Wayne
Sunday April 1: Fort Wayne 84-83 Philadelphia
Tuesday April 3: Philadelphia 100-96 Fort Wayne
Thursday April 5: Fort Wayne 105-107 Philadelphia
Saturday April 7th: Philadelphia 99-88 Fort Wayne

The Philadelphia Warriors become NBA champions for the second time after 1946/47 with 4–1 wins .

The Philadelphia Warriors' championship team

Philadelphia Warriors

Paul Arizin , Ernie Beck , Walt Davis , George Dempsey , Jack George , Tom Gola , Joe Graboski , Larry Hennessy , Neil Johnston , Jackie Moore Head Coach George Senesky

See also

1955 NBA draft

Remarks

1. ↑ The games in the Eastern Division Tie-Break are not included in the play-off statistics.
2. ↑ The games in the Western Division Tie-Break are not included in the play-off statistics.

Individual evidence

1. ^ NN: 1955 NBA Draft. On: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2018. Retrieved October 25, 2018 (in English).
2. ^ NN: 1956 NBA All-Star Game West 108, East 94. On: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2018. Retrieved October 25, 2018 (in English).
3. ↑ Official NBA Guide 2016–2017 , edited by Brad Weinstein. On: NBA website; New York City, New York, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2017 (in English)
4. ↑ NN: Season review: 1955–1956. Scoring continues to surge as Bob Pettit dominates. On: NBA website; New York City, New York, August 24, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2018.