In Los Angeles, owner Jack Kent Cooke had assembled a team featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Boston finished fourth in the East while LA won the West. Cooke had the Forum festooned for a celebration, with the USC band on hand and what seemed like a thousand balloons attached to the roof, waiting to be released. It was all the incentive Boston needed to win the game and spoil the party. Overtime for the championship.
Few circumstances can match that for drama.
Only this was double overtime. In 1957, the Celtics and St. Louis Hawks played out that scenario not once but twice. St. Louis won the first game in double overtime, the first of four games decided by two points. By Game 7, both teams were exhausted. With Boston leading 125-123 and time running out in the second OT, the Hawks had one last chance.