Summary
The Boston Celtics and St. Louis Hawks extended their dominance during the regular season. Boston won the Eastern Division by 12 games and St. Louis won by 16 games in the West.
It seemed much more than likely that they'd meet in the championship series for the third straight year. But the Minneapolis Lakers, led by Rookie of the Year Elgin Baylor, upset the Hawks in six games in the Weatern Division finals.
They couldn't come up with an upset against Boston, though. The Celtics recorded the first four-game championship sweep against the overmatched Lakers.
For the second straight season, new individual scoring and rebounding records were set. Bob Pettit of St. Louis led the league with 2,105 points and a 29.2 average, while Boston's Bill Russell broke his own mark with 1612 rebounds, an average of 23.2 per game.
Bob Cousy, who led the league in assists for the eight straight season, set a new single-game record with 28 assists in Boston's 173-139 win over Minneapolis on Feb. 27, 1959. That game set records for most points by one team, most points for a losing team, and (obviously) most total points.
The Celtics also set a record by winning 52 games. And the NBA reached an all-time high in attendance, 1,449,000, even though there were no division races to spur interest.
