Rocking the Robin

When the Indianapolis Olympians disbanded after the 1953 NBA Playoffs, the fledgling league was left with only nine teams. The NBA then instituted a one-time-only round robin tournament. The second-seeded Celtics beat the top-seeded New York Knicks twice but lost to the Syracuse Nationals twice. As a result, the Celtics and the Nationals met in the Eastern Division Finals, where Syracuse prevailed by sweeping the series, 2-0. Jack Nichols and Bill Sharman paced Boston by averaging 21.5 points each in the two-game bout.