1949 BAA Finals

1949 basketball championship series August 2023 BAA 1949 Washington Capitols Red Auerbach 2 Minneapolis Lakers John Kundla 4 April 4–13 Lakers:George Mikan (1959)Jim Pollard (1978)Coaches: Red Auerbach (1969)John Kundla (1995) Capitols defeated Knickerbockers, 2–1 Lakers defeated Royals, 2–0 The 1949 BAA Finals was the championship round following the Basketball Association of America (BAA)'s 1948–49 season, its third and last. Later that year, the BAA and National Basketball League merged to create the National Basketball Association (NBA). 6'10" George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers proved dominant. They routed the Washington Capitols in six games. This was the first of several successive NBA titles for the Lakers. It was the beginning of the George Mikan and the Lakers Dynasty. This was the first professional sports championship ever won by a Minneapolis-St. Paul-based team. As for the Capitols, they would never reach the Finals again, but their coach in Red Auerbach would do so several times over the next two decades, and this represented his only loss in a Final until 1958 (Auerbach would win nine of his eleven appearances in a Final); this would be the first of six overall finals that featured Auerbach against the Lakers, for which he beat them five times, including in 1959 when he beat Kundla in his last game as head coach of the Lakers. The six games of the final series were played in ten days – Monday, April 4, to Wednesday, April 13 – with one day off except after game three, the first of three played in Washington (Minneapolis led 3–0). Prior to its start, however, Minneapolis had been idle for five days, having qualified on the preceding Tuesday; Washington idle for only one day, having qualified on Saturday. The entire playoff tournament extended 23 days. Series summary Game Date Home team Result Road team Game 1 April 4 Minneapolis Lakers 88–84 (1–0) Washington Capitols Game 2 April 6 Minneapolis Lakers 76–62 (2–0) Washington Capitols Game 3 April 8 Washington Capitols 74–94 (0–3) Minneapolis Lakers Game 4 April 9 Washington Capitols 83–71 (1–3) Minneapolis Lakers Game 5 April 11 Washington Capitols 74–65 (2–3) Minneapolis Lakers Game 6 April 13 Minneapolis Lakers 77–56 (4–2) Washington Capitols Lakers win series 4–2 Team rosters Minneapolis Lakers Minneapolis Lakers 1948–49 11 Mike Bloom basketball F/C 6 6 190 Temple 1915-01-14 15 Don Carlson G/F 6 0 170 Minnesota 1919-03-22 19 Jack Dwan F/G 6 4 200 Loyola Chicago 1921-05-03 18 Ray Ellefson C 6 8 230 West Texas State 1922-11-18 18 Arnie Ferrin F/G 6 2 180 Utah 1925-07-29 22 Donnie Forman G 5 10 175 NYU 1926-01-17 14 Earl Gardner basketball F 6 3 195 DePauw 1923-09-18 13 Tony Jaros F/G 6 3 185 Minnesota 1920-02-22 16 Johnny Jorgensen G/F 6 2 185 DePaul 1921-12-28 20 Whitey Kachan G 6 2 175 DePaul 1925-09-15 99 George Mikan C 6 10 245 DePaul 1924-06-18 17 Jim Pollard SF 6 4 185 Stanford 1922-07-09 24 Herm Schaefer G/F 6 0 175 Indiana 1918-12-20 12 Don Smith basketball, born 1920 G/F 6 2 190 Minnesota 1920-07-27 19 Jack Tingle F 6 4 205 Kentucky 1924-12-30 John Kundla https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MNL/1949.html Washington Capitols Washington Capitols 1948–49 10 Bob Feerick F/G 6 3 190 Santa Clara 1920-01-02 11 Kleggie Hermsen C/F 6 9 225 Minnesota 1923-03-12 29 Sonny Hertzberg G 5 10 175 CCNY 1922-07-29 23 Leo Katkaveck G 6 0 185 NC State 1923-04-17 17 Bones McKinney SF 6 6 185 North Carolina 1919-01-01 15 Jack Nichols basketball PF 6 7 222 Washington 1926-04-09 16 Johnny Norlander F 6 3 180 Hamline 1921-03-05 13 Dick O'Keefe G/F 6 2 185 Santa Clara 1923-09-29 22 Dick Schulz F/G 6 2 192 Wisconsin 1917-01-03 20 Fred Scolari PG 5 10 180 San Francisco 1922-03-01 15 Jack Toomay C/F 6 6 215 Pacific 1922-08-09 18 Matt Zunic G/F 6 3 195 George Washington 1919-12-19 Red Auerbach https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/WSC/1949.html Box scores #eee April 4 Boxscore Washington Capitols 84 Minneapolis Lakers 88 13–23 27–25 21–19 23–21 Fred Scolari 20 George Mikan 42 Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota 8,210 Minneapolis leads series, 1–0 April 6 Boxscore Washington Capitols 62 Minneapolis Lakers 76 13–20 19–27 13–11 17–18 Sonny Hertzberg 13 Don Carlson 16 Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota 10,212 Pat Kennedy, Phil Fox Minneapolis leads series, 2–0 #eee April 8 Boxscore Minneapolis Lakers 94 Washington Capitols 74 26–14 17–15 28–24 23–21 George Mikan 35 Nichols, Zunic 12 each Uline Arena, Washington, D.C. 4,919 Minneapolis leads series, 3–0 April 9 Boxscore Minneapolis Lakers 71 Washington Capitols 83 23–22 12–23 16–20 20–18 George Mikan 27 Jack Nichols 27 Uline Arena, Washington, D.C. 4,471 Minneapolis leads series, 3–1 #eee April 11 Boxscore Minneapolis Lakers 65 Washington Capitols 74 12–22 18–19 22–15 13–18 George Mikan 22 Hermsen, Nichols 13 each Uline Arena, Washington, D.C. 3,840 Minneapolis leads series, 3–2 April 13 Boxscore Washington Capitols 56 Minneapolis Lakers 77 12–19 12–21 17–22 15–15 Kleggie Hermsen 12 George Mikan 29 St. Paul Auditorium, Saint Paul, Minnesota 10,482 Minneapolis wins series, 4–2 References "1948–49 BAA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-02.   Select "Next Season" from the heading for 1949–50, and so on. Select "Finals" from League Playoffs for the daily schedule of the final series, and so on. External links 1949 Finals at NBA.com 1949 BAA Playoffs at Basketball-Reference.com Finals BAA Finals BAA Finals 1949 Category:April 1949 sports events in the United States Category:Basketball competitions in Minneapolis Category:Basketball competitions in Washington, D.C. Category:1949 in sports in Washington, D.C. Category:1940s in Minneapolis Category:1949 in sports in Minnesota