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Chamberlain and 76ers End Celtics’ Win Streak

Jan. 23, 1965 - The Philadelphia 76ers broke off the Boston Celtics’ 16-game win streak before a standing-room-only crowd of 8,515 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Syracuse tonight, 104-100.

The auditorium, with a seating capacity of 7,200, was jammed to the rafters for this first duel between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell since Wilt was acquired by the 76ers.

Chamberlain finished with 16 points, including seven field goals, and he grabbed 26 rebounds. Russell, who whacked Chamberlain around with impunity, didn’t get a single field goal for the night, picking up only four points via free throws. He was credited with 17 rebounds.

The high scorer for the game, which went right down to the wire, was Boston’s Sam Jones, who scored 35 points. The high scorer for Philadelphia was Lucious Jackson, whose 26 points included 10 for 10 from the foul line.

Russell took 15 shots without sinking one, while Chamberlain got his seven field goals, all but one in the second half, on 20 shots.

Though the game was gone beyond recall when the Celtics recovered the final Philadelphia shot, coach Red Auerbach called time out with two seconds left in the game. Then Russell was set up for a shot, but the 76ers didn’t touch him as he went in for a layup. He missed.

“Wilt was just fantastic,” said 76ers head coach Dolph Schayes. “It looked as if he was determined to completely shut out Russell, and he almost did.

“We’re going to try to keep this defense up and let the offense take care of itself. Wilt wants to do the job for us, and he’s doing it. When he gets better adjusted to the team and they get better adjusted to him, you’ll see him really explode offensively.”

The loss kept the Celts from tying an NBA record of 17 consecutive victories set by the Washington Capitols in 1946 — who were coached at the time by Auerbach — and tied by Auerbach’s Celtics in 1959.



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