The last four-overtime playoff game in the NBA before the Friday-night-into-Saturday-morning thriller in Portland won by the Trail Blazers 140-137 over the Denver Nuggets?
It was won by the Celtics (of course) 66 years ago.
The C's beat the Syracuse Nationals (the forerunners of the Philadelphia 76ers), 111-105 behind 50 points (in 66 minutes) from Hall of Famer Bob Cousy in the only other four-OT NBA playoff game to give Boston a 2-0 best-of-three-series sweep in 1953. Alas, Boston would go on to lose to the Knicks in four games in a best-of-five Eastern Conference Finals.
It was so long ago that...
- The Celtics had won zero of their 17 NBA titles. They were four years away from their first.
- And Red Auerbach, in his third season with the Celtics, had zero of the nine NBA titles he would win as a coach.
- Eventual Celtics legends and Hall of Famers Tommy Heinsohn (Holy Cross) and Bill Russell (University of San Francisco) would begin their COLLEGE basketball careers that fall.
- There was no 24-second shot clock. That would come the following season.
- The three-point shot was a mere 26 years away. It was added in 1979.
- The NBA had 10 teams, with only two - the Celtics and the Knicks - still in their original cities today.
The Knicks would go on to lose in the Finals to Hall of Famer George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers in a nightmare matchup for Celtics fans.
Boston Celtics
The other champs in 1953?
NFL: (14 years before the first Super Bowl) The Detroit Lions over the Cleveland Browns, 17-16.
NHL: Those darn Canadiens beat the Bruins in five games in the Stanley Cup Finals
MLB: Those [fill-in the blank] Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in six games.
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