Sports
Will the Lakers vs Hawks history of Jan 7 1972 repeat itself
Will the Lakers vs Hawks history of Jan 7 1972 repeat itself
Since the NBA is in its 75th season, the league scheduled certain games between specific teams at specific times to honor what happened on those days in the past.
The Lakers will feature in an NBA 75 classic matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, Jan. 7 at 10:00 p.m. EST on ESPN.
On that day in 1972, Los Angeles drubbed the Hawks, 134-90. It marked L.A.’s 33rd win in a row, which is the longest winning streak to this day in the league’s history.
Now, it’ll be LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook taking on a fiery young core in Atlanta comprising Trae Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter and plenty of other notable talents.
First part of the history here on this link
Later that night, the Lakers squeaked by Baltimore, 110-106, as Gail Goodrich scored 31 points and Chamberlain grabbed 25 rebounds. The team’s record was 7-3, but it came after a 4-0 start. If the Lakers kept playing without effort, Sharman threatened, there would be fines for everyone.
“Me, too,” he told the Times. “If I can’t get the message across, I’m failing, too.” The year before, Sharman had fined himself $100 while coaching the ABA’s Utah Stars.
Though the streak began on a nondescript November evening, Sharman says its foundation was established the previous summer when he decided he wanted to initiate a morning shootaround.
“Management told me that Wilt might not go for it,” Sharman recalls. “So before the season began I took him to lunch and he said, ‘Bill, I’ve known you a long time. I don’t like getting up early in the morning, but if you think it’ll help the team, then I’ll do it.'”
The shootaround had worked wonders for Sharman. As a player with the Celtics, Sharman had noticed his free-throw percentage jump after he began practicing in the mornings. He won seven NBA free-throw titles, but only after he began morning workouts did he shoot 90 percent for a season – which he did three times. He thought early practices increased his muscle memory and confidence for each evening’s game (Sharman employed the same routine in coaching the American Basketball League’s Cleveland Pipers, a team owned by George Steinbrenner, to the ABL championship in 1962).
The Lakers’ starting five averaged 98.4 points per game during that 1971-72 season, thanks to the one-two punch of West and Goodrich. The two combined for 51.7 points per game, the most ever by a backcourt tandem. The split was essentially democratic – 25.9 points per game for Goodrich and 25.8 for West.
“It was easy to play with Gail,” West explains. “I knew where he was going to be. He was very clever. He knew how to get open and how to make people foul him. He knew how to make jump shots and get in the lane.”
Playing with a high-scoring guard for the first time, West won the assists title with 9.7 per game.
“At that time guards shared one and two,” Goodrich says. “I would go 7-for-10 and then go 1-for-8 and [assistant coach] K.C. Jones would say, ‘Keep shooting.’ It was the saturation method – just keep firing.
“Also, we viewed film, and I had never looked at film before. We were concerned about who we were going to play – our execution. … We were putting the ball in Jerry’s hands a lot. In crunch time he was the best. I wasn’t fighting him for the ball. He was such a great team player. If I got open he would get me the ball. He helped me out defensively.”
Says West: “We knew where everyone was, and if someone made a mistake everyone was there to help you. On defense, we would not let teams reverse the ball, and we would keep it on the sideline, and we had Wilt back there so people weren’t going to get any layups.”
Close games were the exception.
“We just started killing people,” West says.
Substitutes Flynn Robinson, Pat Riley, John Q. Trapp and LeRoy Ellis could expect increased minutes during blowouts. The team played Sharman’s up-tempo style, averaging 123.3 points during the streak.
“That team emitted so much confidence, man,” said former Knicks guard Walt Frazier, who guarded West. “They methodically overwhelmed you. Chamberlain was doing his thing. The backcourt was dynamic. As time went on, it was uncanny just how easily they were winning games.”
Los Angeles chalked up New York as victim No. 3, 103-96. The streak climbed to five in Philadelphia, 143-103. Seattle was 12th on the list, 139-115. The 13th in a row came against Detroit, 132-113, as Chamberlain contributed 31 points, 31 rebounds and six blocks.
“The players are taking pride in the winning streak,” Sharman told the Times afterward. “Wilt is saying, ‘C’mon, let’s keep it going.'”
The first gut check came against Phoenix while going for 20 straight to tie Milwaukee’s record, set the previous season. It was L.A.’s third game in three nights. The game went to overtime, but “Stumpy,” – a name given to the 6-foot-1 Goodrich by Baylor – sealed the deal, racking up seven of the Lakers’ 15 points in overtime in a 126-117 win.
“We had a very tiring travel day yesterday,” Sharman explained afterward, noting a bad plane connection from Houston to Oakland. “We had to go almost an entire game with our regulars because it was so close.”
The record breaker came two nights later on Dec. 12 against Atlanta. It was the Lakers’ fourth game in five nights. They led 96-95 with 61 seconds left. Shortly after that, with the 24-second clock winding down, Goodrich couldn’t find a shot. Then he whipped a pass to Chamberlain for a dunk with 39 seconds left. They ended up winning 104-95.
The game bore an imprint of Laker versatility. Wilt had 24 boards – 11 in the fourth quarter – as the Hawks led 77-75 entering the last period. Goodrich scored 32 points, and West added 26. Atlanta’s Walt Bellamy battled Chamberlain – with each playing all 48 minutes – and posted 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
“The players really wanted it badly,” Sharman told the Times, “and that’s why they were so tight in their shooting. As a consequence, we never got our running game going. So we had to grind it out the hard way. All the teams we’ve played lately have been loose, and they’ve been up for us. … A lot of teams have won championships in the history of the NBA, but nobody has done this.”
But without a title in the end, the streak would be all for naught.
Los Angeles reeled off 12 more to reach 33 in a row. The team’s record loomed at 39-3 when the Lakers traveled to Milwaukee. The Bucks were the defending champions, having won 66 regular-season games the previous season.
“They could match up pretty well with us,” Goodrich remembered. “Kareem was the MVP. We were seeing the changing of the guard. They had Oscar [Robertson] and Lucius Allen.”
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It shouldn’t have come from his mouth: Christopher Bell disgrace Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in public
Christopher Bell disgrace Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in public
Christopher Bell made his choice about NASCAR’s top superstars based on their achievements in races. He believes that drivers like Austin Dillon from RCR, Kyle Busch from JGR, Brad Keselowski from Team Penske, and Bubba Wallace from RFK Racing are the top drivers in terms of wins.
Bell did not mention big names like Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who may be famous but do not have the same level of success as the veterans. He also noted that in the Next-Gen era, there is greater equality in the field, with 15-20 cars competing for the win each week.
This means that the dominance seen in the Big-3 era may not return. Bell suggests that NASCAR needs to find unique ways, like the Netflix documentary, to improve the sport.
Three weeks have passed since the Texas race, and the stunning comeback story it harbored is still the talk of the town. After getting sidelined for 42 Cup races, Chase Elliott stormed back into the winning scene of NASCAR. And the journey to the podium has been a prickly one, laden with obstacles every step of the way.
Chase Elliott suffered a knee injury in a snowboarding accident in 2023 and saw his playoff chances spiraling away from him. His troubles saw no end in sight as his long-time spotter, Eddie D’Hondt, packed up his bags and left. However, the memory of his previous fire helped his journey of recovery.
2023 marked the first season that Chase Elliott walked out of a NASCAR Cup schedule without a single win. However, he did not let his drooping spirits get the better of him. Elliott worked hard with his No. 9 team for a slow but sure comeback in 2024. They crept up the ladder after Daytona, never letting the winless hangover overcome them.
Elliott secured 5th place at Richmond and then grabbed a podium finish at Martinsville. The six-time defending Most Popular Driver held his fans at the edge of their seats. Sure enough, Chase Elliott found his long-lost glory in the Lone Star state. On a recent ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’ episode, Harvick asked Elliott about the relief he felt on seizing that coveted win. Elliott responded, “Yeah, the first time…I’m not quite used to seeing the other side of the interviews…it is odd, I’m getting used to it. Yeah definitely, relief involved, for sure.”
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We are where we belong: Lewis Hamilton ruthless after Mercedes bankruptcy
Mercedes experienced another blow in the neck at the start of the Formula 1 weekend in Miami. George and Hamilton failed in sprint qualifying in Q2. After the slap, Hamilton didn’t even look for excuses, but instead came to a ruthless conclusion.
“I have the feeling that we got everything out of our car. That’s just our pace. We have to accept that we are seven tenths of a second behind,” said the record world champion.
Mercedes in the Miami midfield: balance is right, result is not
Over the past few weekends, setup experiments have often been cited as an explanation for poor results. There was no talk of this in Miami, although the upgrades that Mercedes brought to the track on a large scale and the sprint format would have given plenty of reason to blame a setup search.
But according to Hamilton, there was no problem with the car’s balance. “The car felt very good in training and it didn’t feel bad in sprint qualifying either,” he summarized. Hopes for the race are muted. “The sprint race will be tough. I don’t expect much from 12th place. Plus, it’s not easy to overtake and follow other cars on this track,” said Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton pessimistic: Are points even possible?
“We’ll just try to get into the points somehow, if we can,” are his small goals. George Russell’s outlook for the short race on Saturday sounded a little more optimistic. “I have no doubt that we will continue to sprint forward.” He starts in P11, just one position ahead of his teammate and compatriot.
However, he sees a need for action with a view to qualifying for the sixth Grand Prix of the 2024 Formula 1 season. “We have to get our qualifying problems under control. Because it is always difficult to fight with other cars when you start from behind “, he said.
Russell’s balance conclusion was similar to Hamilton’s: “In the soft tire felt good on our car, but on the medium tire in qualifying we couldn’t get our car into the sweet spot.”
Mercedes dead end: After the first training session things go downhill
What is particularly alarming for Mercedes is a well-known phenomenon this season: after a good start to the weekend in the first training session, there is no improvement in the following sessions. Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin also noted this: “Unfortunately, in the crucial session, we were unable to take the step that others were able to, as we have seen many times this year.”
The Silver Arrows still find a little consolation in the time table: the gaps were quite small in the first qualifying session of the weekend. P5 was only two tenths of a second away. Whether a comparison with RB driver Daniel Ricciardo and a gap of seven tenths to the top meets the demands of a team that once dominated is another matter.
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Millions of Dollars: Dale Earnhardt Jr. faces financial challenges and raises concerns with all the blame on NASCAR
Dale Earnhardt Jr. faces financial challenges and raises concerns with all the blame on NASCAR
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals lack of profitability in NASCAR teams. The NASCAR Hall of Famer has always been vocal about the financial challenges and concerns that arise from owning a racing team in NASCAR. This is due to the current state of NASCAR and the reason why none of the teams are able to generate profits.
During an episode of his podcast, Dale Jr. Download, the 49-year-old driver shared his thoughts on the agreement between NASCAR and the teams. He discussed how he never made money as a team owner, including his Xfinity team, JR Motorsports, and how none of the teams can turn a profit under the current agreement.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed frustration with the overall situation and showed empathy towards the teams, understanding the significant amount of money invested behind the scenes. The financial situation of NASCAR teams seems to be quite complex after the new grant agreement, and NASCAR will likely need to address this issue to avoid future complications.
During the same conversation, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is also a team owner at JRM, shared an interesting detail about Denny Hamlin’s perspective on the profitability of NASCAR teams. According to Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of 23XI Racing, Hamlin supports the teams and is actively working to make them profitable.
Earnhardt Jr. revealed that he has had several discussions with Hamlin about the importance of profitability and how they have been collaborating behind the scenes to help teams achieve financial success. Only time will tell if these efforts will lead to improvements in the financial situation of NASCAR teams.
It shouldn’t have come from his mouth: Christopher Bell disgrace Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in public
We are where we belong: Lewis Hamilton ruthless after Mercedes bankruptcy
