The 1962 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1962 NBA Playoffs, which concluded the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA)'s 1961–62 season. The best-of-seven series was played between the Western Division champion

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

and Eastern Division champion

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

. 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 Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

. 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.

Series summary

''Celtics win series 4–3''

Team rosters

Boston Celtics

Los Angeles Lakers

Records

During the series, Lakers forward

Elgin Baylor Elgin Gay Baylor ( ; September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lak ...

scored a Finals record 61 points in Game 5 and 284 points total in the series. Celtics center

Bill Russell William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Va ...

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 potential championship-winner bounces off the rim

In the last 5 seconds of regulation in Game 7, Laker Frank Selvy missed an open 12-footer from the baseline that would have won the championship for Los Angeles and ended the Celtics dynasty. Instead, the game went into OT in which the Celtics then won the game and thus the title. 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; 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.

References

;Other sources
"1961-62 NBA Season Summary"
''basketball-reference.com''. Retrieved March 28, 2014.

External links

Sports Illustrated (April 30, 1962) Too Much To Beat This Year

at NBA.com

at Basketball-Reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:1962 Nba Finals

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

National Basketball Association Finals NBA NBA

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is a ...

Sports competitions in Boston Sports competitions in Los Angeles 1960s in Boston

Boston Garden