Summary
Everything finally came together for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Along with two aging superstars, 35-year-old Wilt Chamberlain and 33-year-old Jerry West, the Lakers had a young sharp shooting guard in Gail Goodrich and a demon rebounding forward in Happy Hairston.
They set records for most victories, 69, and most consecutive wins, 33, while running away with the Pacific Division championship.
After sweeping Chicago in the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers faced their biggest challenge in the conference finals: The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, led by the NBA scoring leader, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had changed his name from Lew Alcindor. He was named the regular-season Most Valuable Player for the second straight year. But the Bucks weren't at full strength, because Oscar Robertson could play only sparingly due to an injury.
The Lakers won that round in six games and went to the championship series for the eighth time. The previous seven trips had ended in defeat. This time, they won with relative ease, beating the New York Knicks in five games.
Chamberlain wasn't scoring as he had in his younger days, but he still led the league in field goal percentage and rebounds. Goodrich was fifth in scoring, while West led in assists and finished seventh in scoring.
Chamberlain was named MVP of the championship series.
