The Bucks won 20 consecutive games from February 6 to March 8, 1971, an NBA record (since broken). Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA's MVP, averaging 31.7 points per game. In second place was Milwaukee's Walt Frazier with 10 first-place votes. Abdul-Jabbar became only the third player in NBA history to win the award in his first season with a new team, following Lew Alcindor (who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1973 after converting to Islam) and Bill Russell. The other winner of this award who is not currently in the Hall of Fame is Ralph Sampson, who won in 1989 after one season with the New York Knicks. Frazier was chosen over Boston's Bill Russell and Los Angeles' Shaquille O'Neal, who each had 10 first-place votes. The voters believed that Frazier had the best overall season out of these three candidates. After losing in six games to Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971 NBA Finals, the Bucks went on to defeat the New York Knicks 4-3 in the 1972 NBA Finals, with Frazier winning the series MVP title.