The NBA tipped off its landmark 75th Anniversary Season on Oct. 19 in a celebration that lasts throughout the 2021-22 campaign.
Below is a day-by-day look at landmark moments, games, performances and more from this week in NBA history.
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Feb. 27
February 27, 1955
Boston beat Milwaukee 62-57 at Providence, Rhode Island in a game which set a record for fewest points scored by both teams since the introduction of the 24-second clock.
The NBA’s 24-second shot clock — created by Danny Biasone and adopted on April 22, 1954 — changed both basketball at large and the league.
February 27, 1959
Boston Celtics star Bob Cousy dished off for what was then an NBA record 28 assists in a 173-139 win over Minneapolis, the highest scoring game in NBA history at that time. Boston’s 173 points is still the record for a non-overtime game, a mark that was matched by Phoenix in 1990. Scott Skiles of Orlando set the NBA single-game assist record of 30 on December 30, 1990. Cousy’s record of 19 assists in one half has stood for more than 40 years.
February 27, 1996
The Bulls defeated Minnesota 120-99 at the United Center and improved to 50-6, reaching 50 wins with the fewest losses in a season of any major professional sports team (NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB) this century.
February 27, 1998
The Indiana Pacers defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 124-59. The 65-point margin of victory is the second-largest in NBA history, outpaced only by the 68-point margin when Cleveland defeated Miami 148-80 on December 17, 1991.
February 27, 1999
LA Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler works his 1,500th Clippers game in a game against the Atlanta Hawks.
February 27, 1999
The Golden State Warriors, with a 110-93 defeat of Denver, became the seventh franchise in NBA history to register 2,000 victories. The Warriors’ mark includes the triumphs posted by the Philadelphia Warriors (1946-62) and San Francisco Warriors (1962-71).
February 27, 2002
Mengke Bateer becomes the second player from China to play in the NBA, when he joins the Denver Nuggets and records three rebounds in 14 minutes of Denver’s 110-93 loss at Golden State.
February 27, 2012
In the third quarter of the West’s 152-149 victory over the East, Kobe Bryant breaks Michael Jordan’s record for career points scored in the ASG. Needing 19 points to surpass Jordan’s record of 262 career points, Bryant finished the game with 27 points to set the new record at 271 points.
February 27, 2013
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors scores 54 points in a 109-105 loss to the New York Knicks.
Feb. 28
February 28, 1967
Wilt Chamberlain missed his first field goal in four games to end his NBA record shooting streak of 35 consecutive field goals, during Philadelphia’s 127-107 victory over Cincinnati at Syracuse.
February 28, 1981
Houston’s Calvin Murphy made the last of his 78 consecutive free throws, in a game against San Diego, setting what was then an NBA record. The record was later broken during the 1993-94 season by Minnesota’s Micheal Williams, who converted 97 consecutive free throws.
February 28, 1987
Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn called his 2,000th consecutive game for the club, a streak spanning 22 years.
February 28, 2003
Patrick Ewing, New York Knicks legend, and the first ever NBA lottery draft pick, watches as his jersey number 33 is retired before a cheering crowd at Madison Square Garden.
On Feb. 28, 2003, New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing had his jersey retired at Madison Square Garden.
February 28, 2013
Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls blocks 11 shots in a 93-82 win over the Phliladelphia 76ers.
March 1
March 1, 1978
John Drew of Atlanta committed 14 turnovers in a game at New Jersey, an NBA record. Jason Kidd of the Phoenix Suns tied the record by committing 14 turnovers against New York on November 17, 2000.
March 1, 1981
Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets missed a free throw in San Antonio, ending his NBA record consecutive free throw streak at 78. Murphy’s record was broken by Minnesota’s Micheal Williams, who put together a streak of 84 consecutive free throws through the end of the 1992-93 season. The streak eventually grew to 97, before Williams missed a FT attempt early in the 1993-94 season.
March 1, 1986
The New York Knicks retired Hall of Famer Earl “The Pearl” Monroe’s uniform No. 15. Monroe starred on the Knicks’ 1973 NBA championship team.
March 1, 1996
Atlanta’s Lenny Wilkens became the first coach in the NBA to reach 1,000 career victories when the Hawks downed the Cleveland Cavaliers 74-68.
March 1, 1998
Miami coach Pat Riley became the fifth coach to record 900 career wins with a 85-84 win over New Jersey.
March 1, 1999
Philadelphia’s Larry Brown coached his 1,200th NBA game as the Sixers defeat the Washington Wizards 104-91. Brown becomes the 12th coach to coach 1,200 NBA games, joining Pat Riley, Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens as the only active coaches with 1,200 games coached.
March 1, 2009
Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz dished 20 assists in a 112-104 win over the Golden State Warriors.
March 2, 1951
In the first NBA All-Star Game, held at Boston Garden, “Easy” Ed Macauley of the Celtics scored 20 points to lead the East to a 111-94 victory. Macauley was named the game’s MVP.
Check out Dolph Schayes scoring the first points in the very first NBA All-Star game in 1951!
March 2, 1962
Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points, the most ever by an NBA player in a single game, during his team’s 169-147 win over the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Chamberlain shot 36-of-63 from the field and 28-of-32 from the free-throw line, to go with 25 rebounds. His 50.4 ppg scoring average in 80 games during the 1961-62 season remains an NBA record.
On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain of the Warriors scores 100 points against the Knicks.
March 2, 1988
The flaming basketball is adopted as Miami’s official logo from over 1,000 entries. Mark Henderson submitted the winning entry.
March 2, 1993
Denver retired the No. 7 jersey of long-time Nugget Alex English, who spent 10 1/2 of his 15 years in the NBA in the Mile High City, scoring a career total of 25,613 points.
March 3
March 3, 1985
Kevin McHale of the Celtics connected on 22-of-28 field goal attempts and scored a team-record 56 points in a 138-129 victory over Detroit at Boston Garden. Nine days later against Atlanta, Larry Bird set a new Celtics single-game scoring record by hitting for 60 points.
In the span of nine days in 1985, Larry Bird one-upped Kevin McHale’s 56-point game with his own 60-point game.
March 3, 1986
Mark Aguirre of the Mavericks scored 42 points, giving him back-to-back games of 40-plus points, as he led Dallas to a 139-138 double-overtime win over Phoenix.
March 3, 1995
Phoenix forward A.C. Green moved past former NBA great Dolph Schayes and into third place on the all-time consecutive games played list, with 707, after playing 38 minutes and scoring 13 points in the Suns’ 122-118 overtime win over visiting Seattle.
March 3, 1999
Milwaukee’s Dell Curry reached 1,000 3-pointers made in a 106-78 win over the Golden State Warriors.
March 3, 2014
LeBron James of the Miami Heat scores 61 points in a 124-107 win over the Charlotte Bobcats. James made 22 of 33 shots from the field, including his first eight 3-point attempts. He had 24 points at halftime, then added 25 in the third quarter. The record-breaker came with 5:46 left, when James spun through three defenders for a layup that fell as he tumbled to the court.
LeBron James scores 61 points as the Heat beat the Bobcats on March 3, 2014.
March 3, 2020
San Antonio Spurs legend and Hall of Famer Tim Duncan makes his debut as an NBA coach, serving as the Spurs’ acting head coach in a 104-103 road win against the Charlotte Hornets. Duncan was filling in for coach Gregg Popovich, who missed the game due to personal reasons.
March 4
March 4, 1982
San Antonio’s George Gervin racked up 48 points, surpassing 19,000 career points, in a 110-101 loss to Boston.
March 4, 1996
Utah’s John Stockton hands out 11 assists during the Jazz’ 110-87 victory over Phoenix, becoming the first NBA player to collect 11,000 career assists.
March 4, 1998
Arbitrator John Feerick upheld the NBA’s suspension of Latrell Sprewell for the 1997-98 season, resulting in a monetary penalty of $6.4 million, finding that the NBA’s investigation was “done in good faith and was fair and adequate.” Feerick also found “that the NBA complied with the standards of industrial due process.” He reduced the NBA’s suspension to the extent it had included approximately one month of the 1998-99 season. However, the arbitrator reinstated Sprewell’s contract with Golden State for the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons, finding that the combination of a one-season suspension and a contract termination would not be appropriate under all of the circumstances.
March 4, 2012
Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets scores 57 points in a 104-101 win over the Charlotte Bobcats.
Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics dished 20 assists in a 115-111 win over the New York Knicks.
March 4, 2016
Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers scores 50 points in a 117-115 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
March 5
March 5, 1983
Golden State’s Joe Barry Carroll scored 52 points in a 127-121 Warriors victory over the Utah Jazz.
March 5, 1996
Dallas sets a then NBA record for 3-point field goal attempts (49) in a game during a 127-117 win over visiting New Jersey. George McCloud makes seven threes in an NBA record-tying 20 attempts. Michael Adams of Denver also attempted 20 3-point field goals against the Los Angeles Clippers on April 12, 1991. The mark was surpassed by the Rockets on Jan. 16, 2019 as Houston attempted 70 3-pointers.