1963-1964 Boston Celtics: Championship #7

The 1963-1964 Boston Celtics had to adjust to the retirement of their floor general, Bob Cousy. With Cousy’s Boston Celtics’ career over, the team adjusted to a different style of play, and averaged 5 fewer points while playing a far slower pace. Still, the slower Boston Celtics were still the Boston Celtics, and the Celtics won 59 games, compared to 21 losses, in the first season post-Cousy.
K.C. Jones filled Cousy’s giant shoes (figuratively speaking), bringing a solid hand to lead the Celtics. While he was not quite the player Cousy was, Jones was a solid player and, above all, a winner. With Jones manning the point guard position, the Celtics hardly missed a beat.

The 1963-1964 Boston Celtics, despite playing at a slower pace and scoring fewer points, still had five player average double figures (Tom Heinsohn, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Bill Russell and Tom “Satch” Sanders) and another, Willie Naulls, acquired in the offseason from the San Francisco Warriors, averaged 9.8 points.

The 1963-1964 Boston Celtics displayed an aura of dominance in the NBA playoffs, dispatching Oscar Robertson’s Cincinatti Royals in five games in the NBA Eastern Division Playoffs and then dismantling the San Francisco Warriors in another five game series to win the NBA Championship for the sixth straight time.