Knicks History: 1970 team drops 151 points on the 76ers

"On this day – February 12th, 1970, the New York Knicks played angry. The team had won 12 of their last 13 games heading into a game on February 11th with the Boston Celtics, a game that they ended up losing in overtime."

Knicks star point guard Walt Frazier was out for the Knicks due to the Flu, and John Havlicek led the way for the Celtics with 30 points. This was not a great Celtics team — It was a game the Knicks could have won. So how did the Knicks respond? They responded like future NBA champions.

Two days later, the Knicks took on the Philadelphia 76ers at the old Spectrum Arena on South Broad Street in Philly. Walt Frazier was back in action and the Knicks came out on fire – the team built a sizeable early lead and were up on the Sixers 38-23 after the first quarter. It didn’t stop there.

The Knicks continued to pour it on in the 2nd quarter, and the game became a flat-out embarrassment. The Knicks put up a whopping 42 points in the 2nd quarter, and the score at the end of the half was 80-46 Knicks.

The Knicks did not show any brotherly love. The team would go on to win the game by a final score of 151-106, with their starters resting for the entire 4th quarter. It was the team’s 50th win in 63 games.

The win was indicative of the complete dominance and intimidation that embodied the 1970 team. The win against the Sixers was a total team effort: Stars Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and Dave Debusschere combined for just 44 of the 151 points.

Former first overall pick Cazzie Russell took charge, scoring 35 points to go with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. The veteran shooter Dick Barnett dropped in 25 points on 10-11 from the field.

The game remains tied for the 2nd most points the Knicks have scored in team history. The Knicks went on to win 60 games that season en route to the franchise’s first-ever NBA championship. The 1970 NBA finals produced some of the most iconic moments in not only Knicks history but in the history of the entire NBA.

Game 7 of the 1970 saw finals gave us the famous “Willis Reed Game”. Reed had suffered a severe thigh injury in game 6 that was expected to keep him out of game 7, only for him to come out of the tunnel to roaring applause at Madison Square Garden for pregame warmups. Walt Frazier’s game 7 performance remains one of the greats in NBA finals history — He finished the game with 36 points, 19 assists, and 7 rebounds.

It’s fun to look back on these specific moments of what was a magical era of Knicks basketball. Any Knicks fan can tell you about the lasting images of the Willis Reed game, or Walt Clyde Frazier’s fur coats, but what gets lost in the folklore is the everyday grind of an NBA season.

The 1970 season was no different than any other — the Knicks had to play the full 82 games and go through 3 different teams in the playoffs to get the glory. The team was built through years of drafting and establishing a winning culture.

The blowout win against the 76ers on February 13th, 1970, may have seemed like just another regular-season moment, but it turned out to be a part of something much bigger. That Knicks team will not be forgotten, and the present-day Knicks can surely learn a thing or two by studying the team’s most dominant era.