Oct. 31, 1964 - Boston got all the treats and Cincinnati all the tricks this Halloween night as the Celtics convincingly smashed the Royals, 122-94, in a first meeting of the two NBA Eastern Division powers tonight before 10,331 at the Boston Garden.
Never, not even in last year’s Eastern playoff finals, did the Celtics humiliate the Royals as they did in this game, and the Royals can only hope it was an off night and not an omen of what is to come.
It was Boston’s eighth straight victory and put the Celtics three games up on the Royals in the early struggle for East honors.
The Royals made a game of it through the first half, although trailing most of the way, and still were within range midway in the third quarter, trailing by seven points.
Then Cincinnati’s offense fell apart, and the Celtics broke it open. In a 9:36 stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters, the Royals, the NBA’s most prolific scoring team, failed to make a field goal and were outscored, 28-4.
By then, Royals’ coach Jack McMahon already had thrown in the towel, and Boston’s Red Auerbach was happily inserting his own subs.
The statistics showed Sam Jones leading the Celts with 22 points, Tommy Heinsohn scoring 20, and the much improved, hard-driving Larry Siegfried tallying 18.
But for the Royals, the defeat mostly again spelled two words: Bill Russell. He grabbed 24 rebounds and scored 15 points, but most important, he demoralized the Royals, threw off their shots, forced them into mistakes, and generally made them look foolish. Most haunted was Wayne Embry, who could score only four points.
The only sour note for Boston was the inability of John Havlicek to play for a second straight game. The former Buckeye has water on the left knee, the same knee from which he had cartilage removed in an operation this summer.
But Boston didn’t need him this night.
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