1973–74 NBA season  The 1973–74 NBA season was the 28th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Milwaukee Bucks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. The NBA opened the year still very impressed with the New York Knicks' second-ever NBA title from a year ago. Much publicized, the team largely played this year as a victory lap, particularly after cornerstone Dave DeBusschere announced his pending retirement halfway through the season. Their opponent in three of the last four NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers, also went through some key changes. Wilt Chamberlain had taken the money and run to San Diego of the ABA, which came to mean the end of his colossal career. Jerry West played just 31 games due to injury, and that likewise spelled the end to his nearly peerless career at guard. These two teams, which had led the league from two huge cities and carried the NBA to new media heights, were now poised to decline, which now gave strong runners-up from a year ago their chance to ascend. There were no 60-win teams that season, but four teams did win over 50 games. Two of them, Milwaukee and Boston cast strong shadows all season long, each led by powerful individual forces determined to win. Milwaukee won a league-most 59 of 82 NBA games, led again by superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem had not seen the NBA Finals since the controversial changing of his name, but now had no Wilt Chamberlain to prevent his return. He averaged 27 points per game, making more field goals, 948, than any player in the league. The Bucks were again the top shooting team in the NBA and led in average margin of points over opponents as well. Second in minutes played and in the new blocked shots category, Abdul-Jabbar was a peerless presence all season long. One player, Atlanta's high-scoring Pete Maravich, had more shots, but Kareem sank his tries at a 53.9% clip, the second best in the NBA. The rest of the Bucks lineup provided good support for Abdul-Jabbar, but age and injuries remained a concern into the playoffs. The Boston Celtics cast a very determined shadow across the East with 56 wins, willed by 33-year-old team captain John Havlicek. The swingman star was again All-Defense while scoring 22.8 points per game. Hondo also leaked into the NBA's top assists category with six per game on average.