NBA 1956/57

National Basketball Association
◄ previous	1956/57 season		next ►
Duration		October 27, 1956 - April 13, 1957
Season games per team		72
Number of teams		8th
Top seed
Best record		Boston Celtics
Season MVP		Bob Cousy ( Boston Celtics )
Top scorer		Paul Arizin ( Philadelphia Warriors )
Playoffs
Eastern Division - Champion		Boston Celtics
Western Division - Champion		St. Louis Hawks
Finals
NBA champions		Boston Celtics

The NBA season 1956/57 was the eleventh season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and began on October 27, 1956 and ended regularly after 288 games on March 13, 1957. The postseason began after two tie-breaks on the 14th and 16th March also on the 16th of the same month and ended on April 13th with 4 - 3 final victories of the Boston Celtics over the St. Louis Hawks .

Season Notes

• This should be the final season for the Rochester Royals and Fort Wayne Pistons at their respective locations.
• The Celtics secured Tom Heinsohn as their territorial pick in the 1956 NBA Draft . The first pick in the NBA draft was Si Green from Duquesne University for the Rochester Royals. The St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell of the University of San Francisco second, but swapped him with the Celtics for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan . Russell's fellow student KC Jones was selected by Boston in the second round.
• The seventh All-Star Game took place on Tuesday, January 15, 1957 in front of 11,178 spectators in the Boston Garden in Boston , Massachusetts . Red Auerbach's Eastern All-Stars defeated Bobby Wanzer's Western All-Stars with 109-97. All-Star Game MVP became Bob Cousy.

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

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

NBA 1956/57: Eastern Division in blue, Western Division in red

Pl.	team	Sp	S-N	%	GB	home	Selection	Neuter	Div.
1.	Boston Celtics	72	44-28	.611	-	27-40	12-19	05-50	20-16
2.	Syracuse Nationals	72	38-34	.528	06th0	22-90	12-19	04-60	20-16
3.	Philadelphia Warriors	72	37-35	.514	07th0	26-50	05-26	06-40	17-19
4th	New York Knicks	72	36-36	.500	08th0	18-10	09-20	09-60	15-21

Western Division

Pl.	team	Sp	S-N	%	GB	home	Selection	Neuter	Div.
1.	0Fort Wayne Pistons0	72	34-38	.472	-	23-80	07-24	04-60	17-19
2.	Minneapolis Lakers	72	34-38	.472	-	18-13	09-22	07-30	18-18
3.	St. Louis Hawks	72	34-38	.472	-	18-13	11-20	05-50	22-14
4th	Rochester Royals	72	31-41	.431	030	19-12	09-22	03-70	15-21

Honors

• 1957 All-Star Game MVP : Bob Cousy , Boston Celtics
• Most Valuable Player 1956/57 : Bob Cousy , Boston Celtics
• Rookie of the Year 1956/57 : Tom Heinsohn , Boston Celtics

All-NBA First Team : Paul Arizin , Philadelphia Warriors Dolph Schayes , Syracuse Nationals Bob Pettit , St. Louis Hawks Bob Cousy , Boston Celtics Bill Sharman , Boston Celtics

All-NBA Second Team : George Yardley , Fort Wayne Pistons Maurice Stokes , Rochester Royals Neil Johnston , Philadelphia Warriors Dick Garmaker , Minneapolis Lakers Slater Martin , St. Louis Hawks

Leading players in individual ratings

category	player	team	value
Points	Paul Arizin	Philadelphia Warriors	1817
Throwing Rate †	Neil Johnston	Philadelphia Warriors	44.7%
Free throw rate ‡	Bill Sharman	Boston Celtics	90.5%
Assists	Bob Cousy	Boston Celtics	478
Rebounds	Maurice Stokes	Rochester Royals	1256

^† 230 baskets required. Johnston took 1,163 shots and hit 520 times, the fifth most frequently.
^‡ 190 free throws required. Sharman hit 381 out of 421.

• With 312, Vern Mikkelsen of the Minneapolis Lakers committed the most fouls and was the most fouled out with a total of 18 times . Vern Mikkelsen led between 1954 and 1957 like George Mikan before him three times in a row the foul statistics and had the most total of NBA history with 127 disqualifications in his career.
• Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals was the longest on the floor with 2851 minutes in 72 games.
• Arizin's 1817 points resulted in an average of 25.6 points per game, which is the highest point rate. He had the sixth best litter rate out of the field with 42.2% with at least 230 baskets and the eighth best overall.
• 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 by 1957 - had improved his free-throw rate substantially to over 90% compared to the previous year. A total of five players scored more free throws than Sharman this season.
• Despite Cousy's season assist record, the Celtics had against Minneapolis on November 28, 1956 in Louisville the game with the fewest assists in NBA history, namely ten (Boston 3, Lakers 7).
• In addition to Maurice Stokes, Bob Pettit and Dolph Schayes gained over a thousand rebounds. Rookie Bill Russell had only 943 rebounds in 48 games, but with 19.6 rebounds per game a significantly higher rebound rate than Stokes with 17.4 RpS. As early as next season, Russell should exceed the number of a thousand rebounds twelve times in a row and increase the rebound rate of his career (minimum 400 games) to the second best in NBA history (as of 2018).

Playoffs tree

Division semi-finals

Division Finals

NBA finals

Western Division

W1

St. Louis Hawks

3

W2

Minneapolis Lakers

2

W2

Minneapolis Lakers

0

W3

Fort Wayne Pistons

0

W1

St. Louis Hawks

3

E1

Boston Celtics

4th

Eastern Division

E1

Boston Celtics

3

E2

Syracuse Nationals

2

E2

Syracuse Nationals

0

E3

Philadelphia Warriors

0

Playoff results

The playoffs began on March 16 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.

The Celtics 'Bob Cousy gave 93 assists, Bill Russell got 244 rebounds and the Hawks' Bob Pettit got 298 points in the postseason.

Tie breaker

After the regular season, there were initially two tie-breaks that are not included in the playoff statistics. The Fort Wayne Pistons played on Thursday March 14, 1957, and the Minneapolis Lakers on Saturday March 16. All three teams had the same victory record, regardless of the tie-breaks they were seeded according to their point difference.

Thursday March 14: St. Louis 115-103 Fort Wayne
Saturday March 16: St. Louis 114-111 Minneapolis

Eastern Division semi-finals

Syracuse Nationals 2, Philadelphia Warriors 0
Saturday March 16: Philadelphia 96-103 Syracuse
Monday March 18: Syracuse 91-80 Philadelphia

Western Division semi-finals

Minneapolis Lakers 2, Fort Wayne Pistons 0
Sunday, March 17: Minneapolis
131-127 Fort Wayne Tuesday, March 19: Fort Wayne 108-110 Minneapolis

Eastern Division Finals

Boston Celtics 3, Syracuse Nationals 0
Thursday, March 21: Boston 108-90 Syracuse
Saturday, March 23: Syracuse 105-120 Boston
Sunday, March 24: Boston 83-80 Syracuse

Western Division Finals

St. Louis Hawks 3, Minneapolis Lakers 0
Thursday, March 21: St. Louis 118-109 Minneapolis
Sunday, March 24: St. Louis 106-104 Minneapolis
Monday, March 25: Minneapolis 143-145 St. Louis (n . 2. V.)

NBA finals

Boston Celtics vs. St. Louis Hawks

There were numerous records in this remarkable series of finals, such as: B. Most individual fouls in seven games. Arnie Risen, who was also disqualified four times in a row, had 37 fouls on the kerbholz. Jack McMahon of the Hawks was just one foul behind. Russell achieved 32 rebounds in the last game, should surpass himself in the years to come and set the rebound record in finals that is still valid today. Cousy granted 19 assists on April 9 and again two years later. Only Magic Johnson had the more assists in the finals. Pettit threw once 15 and once 16 free throws in the series. But this, like Tom Heinsohn's final record in the last game of 17 field goals in 33 attempts, should only last for one year.

The final results:
Saturday March 30th: Boston 123-125 St. Louis (2nd V.)
Sunday March 31st: Boston 119-99 St. Louis
Saturday April 6th: St. Louis 100-98 Boston
Sunday April 7: St. Louis 118 - 123 Boston
Tuesday April 9: Boston 124 - 109 St. Louis
Thursday April 11: St. Louis 96 - 94 Boston
Saturday April 13: Boston 125 - 123 St. Louis (aft. 2. V.)

The Boston Celtics become NBA champions for the first time with 4-3 wins .

The Boston Celtics champions team

Boston Celtics

Bob Cousy , Tom Heinsohn , Dick Hemric , Jim Loscutoff , Jack Nichols , Andy Phillip , Frank Ramsey , Arnold Risen , Bill Russell , Bill Sharman , Lou Tsioropoulos Head Coach Red Auerbach

See also

1956 NBA draft

Remarks

1. ↑ The games in the Western 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: 1956 NBA Draft. On: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018 (in English).
2. ^ NN: 1957 NBA All-Star Game. East 109, West 97. At: Basketball Reference Web site; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2018. Retrieved October 27, 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: 1956-57. The Boston Celtics begin their unprecedented run of 11 titles in 13 seasons. On: NBA website; New York City, New York, August 23, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2018.