1974 Boston Celtics

Tom Heinsohn's Celtics were quick and deep rather than tall. Cowens played center at an undersized height and made up for it with range, passing, and constant motion. Havlicek, now the captain, scored 22 a game and guarded the other team's best wing.

Jo Jo White ran the backcourt and Paul Silas did the dirty work on the boards. The roster also held a young Paul Westphal, still a reserve before his run of All-Star seasons in Phoenix.

The Finals against Milwaukee turned on Boston's choice to swarm Abdul-Jabbar with double and triple teams. He still scored, but Game 7 freed Cowens, who put up 28 points and 14 rebounds in a 102-87 win on the Bucks' floor. Game 6 had gone to Milwaukee in double overtime on a skyhook with three seconds left.

Havlicek's Finals MVP came in his second decade with the franchise. The title was the twelfth in Celtics history and the first since Russell walked away in 1969.

The league was smaller than it is today, but the 1974 playoffs still required beating the best teams in the division and then the other side of the bracket. Title paths from this era are shorter on paper than a modern run, yet the Finals still decided the champion.

The starting five was Jo Jo White, John Havlicek, Don Chaney, Paul Silas, and Dave Cowens. Tom Heinsohn coached the group with Don Nelson as the primary bench scorer.

This was title number 2 in a Boston Celtics run that stretched across consecutive or near-consecutive seasons. Repeat winners carried continuity from one year to the next.

The full roster ran deeper than the headline names. Role players who mattered included Paul Westphal (young reserve guard, later a Phoenix All-Star); Steve Kuberski (frontcourt reserve); Henry Finkel (backup center).

By 1974 the NBA had expanded nationwide and the Finals were a national television event. The Boston Celtics title run still required winning the East or West bracket, then taking the championship round.

The Boston Celtics share a lineage with other banners from 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008, 2024. Compare those seasons on the franchise hub to see how the roster and style changed between title runs.

Looking back, the 1973-74 Celtics went 56-26 and beat the Milwaukee Bucks in seven for their first title of the post-Russell era. Dave Cowens, a center barely 6-foot-9, held his own against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and John Havlicek took Finals MVP. Boston clinched on the road, winning Game 7 by 15 in Milwaukee after losing a double-overtime Game 6 to a Kareem skyhook.

For the full roster beyond the featured starters, see the table on this page. For other Boston Celtics titles, use the franchise hub linked below.