Mar. 23, 1964 - Chalk up two for the defense.
That’s the answer you get if you ask one of the St. Louis Hawks how they gained a 2-0 playoff lead on the Los Angeles Lakers. The Hawks followed up their 115-104 Saturday victory with a 106-90 triumph last night.
The double win put St. Louis in excellent position in the Western Division NBA series as the teams move to Los Angeles. A Hawk victory Wednesday would end the best-of-five playoff.
A typical comment on the Hawks’ success so far was that of guard Len Wilkens (pictured): “We’ve always played the Lakers close, of course, but I know that in these games we played them tighter than ever. We stayed on top of them and tried to make them earn everything.”
From veteran guard Richie Guerin: “Everybody hustled, especially on defense. Nobody stood around. It was a fine team effort.”
In complete agreement with his players was Hawk coach Harry Gallatin: “We could have been beaten in the first quarter last night, when we were so cold, if we hadn’t hung in there and kept the Lakers from getting too far ahead.”
The Hawks went four minutes before scoring their first field goal (Bob Pettit) and almost seven minutes before they got their second (Pettit again).
“When they did finally get going,” Gallatin said, “they went like a steamroller. Even when they couldn’t buy a basket, our guys were fighting the Lakers on the boards and hanging all over Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They made me proud.”
Laker coach Fred Schaus made no excuses for his club. “We were outrun, outshot, and outhustled,” said Schaus. “The Hawks deserved to win.”
