# 1950–51 New York Knicks season

The 1950–51 New York Knicks season was the fifth season for the team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the regular season, the Knicks finished in third place in the Eastern Division, and their 36–30 record gave them a berth in the NBA Playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.
New York faced the Boston Celtics in the first round of the Eastern Division playoffs, and won the best-of-three series 2–0 to advance to the division finals. In that series, the Knicks defeated the Syracuse Nationals 3–2 in a best-of-five series, earning the franchise's first trip to the NBA Finals. The Rochester Royals faced the Knicks in the Finals, and won the first three games of the best-of-seven series. New York won the next three games to even up the series, but Rochester won the seventh game by a score of 79–75.

## NBA draft

Note: This is not an extensive list; it only covers the first and second rounds, and any other players picked by the franchise that played at least one game in the league.
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | School/Club Team |
| 1 | 6 | Irwin Dambrot | F | United States | CCNY |
| 2 | 18 | Herb Scherer | C | United States | Long Island |

## Regular season
### Season standings

| Eastern Divisionvte | W | L | PCT | GB | Home | Road | Neutral | Div |
| x-Philadelphia Warriors | 40 | 26 | .606 | – | 28–4 | 11–21 | 1–1 | 22–14 |
| x-Boston Celtics | 39 | 30 | .565 | 1 | 25–5 | 10–23 | 4–2 | 21–19 |
| x-New York Knicks | 36 | 30 | .545 | 4 | 22–5 | 10–25 | 4–0 | 21–15 |
| x-Syracuse Nationals | 32 | 34 | .485 | 8 | 23–10 | 9–24 | – | 19–17 |
| Baltimore Bullets | 24 | 42 | .364 | 16 | 20–12 | 4–24 | 0–6 | 12–24 |
| Washington Capitols | 10 | 25 | .286 | 30 | 7–12 | 3–12 | 0–1 | 6–12 |
    x = clinched playoff spot

### Record vs. opponents

1950–51 NBA records :
| Team | BAL | BOS | FWP | IND | MIN | NYK | PHI | ROC | SYR | TCB | WAS |
| Baltimore | — | 3–6 | 4–2 | 2–4 | 2–4 | 2–5 | 3–6 | 1–5 | 3–5 | 3–3 | 1–2 |
| Boston | 6–3 | — | 5–1 | 4–1 | 3–3 | 4–4 | 4–4 | 2–4 | 2–5 | 4–2 | 4–3 |
| Fort Wayne | 2–4 | 1–5 | — | 5–3 | 5–3 | 2–4 | 3–3 | 3–5 | 3–3 | 5–5 | 3–1 |
| Indianapolis | 4–2 | 1–4 | 3–5 | — | 3–7 | 5–1 | 1–5 | 5–4 | 3–3 | 4–4 | 2–2 |
| Minneapolis | 4–2 | 3–3 | 3–5 | 7–3 | — | 3–3 | 4–2 | 4–4 | 4–2 | 10–0 | 2–0 |
| New York | 5–2 | 4–4 | 4–2 | 1–5 | 3–3 | — | 5–3 | 3–3 | 5–5 | 4–2 | 2–1 |
| Philadelphia | 6–3 | 4–4 | 3–3 | 5–1 | 2–4 | 3–5 | — | 4–2 | 6–2 | 4–2 | 3–0 |
| Rochester | 5–3 | 5–2 | 3–3 | 3–3 | 2–4 | 5–5 | 2–6 | — | 4–2 | 5–3 | 5–0 |
| Syracuse | 5–3 | 5–2 | 3–3 | 3–3 | 2–4 | 5–5 | 2–6 | 2–4 | — | 3–3 | 2–0 |
| Tri-Cities | 3–3 | 2–4 | 5–5 | 4–4 | 0–10 | 2–4 | 2–4 | 3–5 | 3–3 | — | 1–1 |
| Washington | 2–1 | 3–4 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 0–5 | 0–2 | 1–1 | — |

### Game log
## Playoffs

1951 playoff game log :
Division semifinals: 2–0 (home: 1–0; road: 1–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh assistsLocationSeries
1
March 20
@ Boston
W 83–69
Vince Boryla (20)
Boston Garden
1–0
2
March 22
Boston
W 92–78
Max Zaslofsky (27)
Dick McGuire (9)
Madison Square Garden III
2–0 :
Division finals: 3–2 (home: 3–0; road: 0–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh assistsLocationSeries
1
March 28
Syracuse
W 103–92
Vince Boryla (30)
Dick McGuire (13)
Madison Square Garden III
1–0
2
March 29
@ Syracuse
L 80–102
Ray Lumpp (16)
Vandeweghe, McGuire (5)
State Fair Coliseum
1–1
3
March 31
Syracuse
W 77–75 (OT)
Harry Gallatin (18)
Madison Square Garden III
2–1
4
April 1
@ Syracuse
L 83–90
Max Zaslofsky (20)
Dick McGuire (9)
State Fair Coliseum
2–2
5
April 4
Syracuse
W 83–81
Vince Boryla (23)
Ernie Vandeweghe (5)
Madison Square Garden III
3–2 :
NBA Finals: 3–4 (home: 2–1; road: 1–3)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
April 7
@ Rochester
L 65–92
Vince Boryla (13)
Simmons, Clifton (10)
Ernie Vandeweghe (4)
Edgerton Park Arena 4,200
0–1
2
April 8
@ Rochester
L 84–99
Max Zaslofsky (28)
Harry Gallatin (17)
Vince Boryla (7)
Edgerton Park Arena 4,200
0–2
3
April 11
Rochester
L 71–78
Vince Boryla (20)
Nat Clifton (11)
Dick McGuire (7)
69th Regiment Armory 5,000
0–3
4
April 13
Rochester
W 79–73
Harry Gallatin (22)
Nat Clifton (17)
Zaslofsky, Clifton (6)
69th Regiment Armory 4,000
1–3
5
April 15
@ Rochester
W 92–89
Connie Simmons (26)
Nat Clifton (10)
Nat Clifton (7)
Edgerton Park Arena 4,200
2–3
6
April 18
Rochester
W 80–73
Max Zaslofsky (23)
Ernie Vandeweghe (8)
Dick McGuire (6)
69th Regiment Armory 4,500
3–3
7
April 21
@ Rochester
L 75–79
Zaslofsky, Boryla (16)
Harry Gallatin (10)
Ernie Vandeweghe (5)
Edgerton Park Arena 4,200
3–4 :
1951 schedule :

## Awards and records

* Dick McGuire, All-NBA Second Team