Today's Date in NBA History

(Boulder-CO) Today's date is December 14th, and on this day:

'62- Wilt Chamberlain scored 63 points for the Philadelphia Warriors and Elgin Baylor tallied 50 points for the Los Angeles Lakers, one of only three times in NBA history that opposing players each scored at least 50 points in the same game.

'65- Rick Barry of San Francisco poured in 57 points during the Warriors’ 141-137 setback against New York at Madison Square Garden. Barry’s 57 points were the second-highest total ever scored by a rookie in an NBA game (Wilt Chamberlain twice scored 58 for Philadelphia in 1960), and his 21 free throws (in 22 attempts) tied Frank Selvy’s NBA rookie record for the most free throws made in a game.

'75- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar grabbed 29 defensive rebounds, an NBA record, in a 110-100 win over Detroit. Prior to the 1973-74 season, offensive and defensive rebounds were tabulated collectively.

'85- The Utah Jazz retired Pete Maravich’s uniform #7. “Pistol” Pete averaged 24.2 ppg in 10 NBA seasons ending in 1979-80.

'88- The Miami Heat won their first game in the NBA, defeating the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88 at the LA Sports Arena. The win by Miami broke a 17-game losing streak, which established an NBA record for consecutive losses at the start of a season that was tied by the Clippers nearly 11 years later.

'90- Alex English of Dallas scored his 25,000th career point during the Mavericks’ 106-104 road loss to the Trail Blazers.

'96- The Clippers beat the Kings 106-94, enabling coach Bill Fitch to join Lenny Wilkens, Red Auerbach and Dick Motta as the only coaches in NBA history to win 900 games.

'99- The Los Angeles Clippers scored just 19 points in the first half against the Los Angeles Lakers, snapping a nearly 25-year old record for fewest points in the first half of a game held by the New Orleans Jazz. New Orleans scored 20 points in the first half against Seattle on January 4, 1975.

'00- Rudy Tomjanovich of the Houston Rockets earned his 400th head coaching victory in a 98-95 win over Golden State. Tomjanovich became the 29th NBA coach to accumulate 400 wins.

Enjoy your day!