God Bless Jerry West: 1965 NBA Playoffs
In the 1965 NBA Western Division Finals Jerry West set the all-time playoff scoring record for a series
LOS ANGELES - April 15, 1965
The Sports Time Traveler is following the 1965 NBA playoffs. In the Western Division Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Baltimore Bullets. The Lakers had to play the entire series without superstar forward Elgin Baylor.
Fortunately, the Lakers still had Jerry West. West took over the scoring load and pumped in 49 points in game 1, and 52 points in game 2, and the Lakers won both of the games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
West scored 44 in game 3 and 48 in game 4, but the Bullets took those games played on their homecourt in the Baltimore Civic Center.
Back in L.A. for game 5, West was held to 43, but the Lakers won the game.
Then back across the country for game 6, West scored just 42, but his teammate, Dick Barnett, helped out with 31 and the Lakers wrapped up the series 4 games to 2.
Jerry West averaged 46.3 across the series. In doing so, he set the NBA record for highest scoring average in a NBA playoff series.
Dan Hafner wrote in the Los Angeles Times about the defense the Bullets deployed to try and contain Jerry West, “Baltimore had four different men trying to halt the Laker great and they were getting to him at the finish. In his last two games he fell off to 43 and 42 points.”
A modest Jerry West told Hafner, “I am really bushed. A couple of days rest though and I should be ready (for the NBA Finals). I realize I had a good series, but what really won it for us was our defense.”
Lakers’ coach Fred Schaus was less modest about his star guard. Schaus told Shafner, “The only thing that skinny kid didn’t do was take tickets. No wonder my four-year-old Jimmy winds up his bedtime prayers with ‘God bless mommy, God bless daddy, and God bless Jerry West.’”
POSTSCRIPT - 1
A few days after the end of the 1965 Western Division Finals, the great Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote an outstanding column celebrating Jerry West. Here’s what Murray had to say about West’s record scoring performance in the series:
POSTSCRIPT - 2
Back here in the present time, Jerry West, not Wilt Chamberlain, not Michael Jordan, but that “skinny kid,” Jerry West, holds the all-time scoring average record for an NBA playoff series.
Here’s the list of all-time playoff scoring averages in a series: