It was deemed remarkable that they even got to the Division Finals vs. Boston with all the injuries.
Luke Jackson was playing with a badly pulled hamstring.
When Lakers star Magic pulled his hamstring in '89 Finals, he could not even play the final game at all & much of the third game.
While the 1989 Lakers get excused due to injury, the '68 Sixers do not. B
Back in the old days they were expected to gut it out under worse playing conditions, as Jackson did when he played the entire 1966 season on a broken leg, casually shrugging it off as shin splints.
There were times during the NY series when the hobbled Sixers were getting killed on the boards, as Bellamy & Reed were feasting on the offensive glass. They played Games 4, 5, and 6 consecutively. No days off in between.
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New York Times - Apr 18, 1968
But injuries have depleted the team that ended the Celtics' eight-year reign last season.
Wally Jones, the jump-shooting Philadelphia guard with the game-breaking touch, is doubtful for Friday.
He aggravated his right knee, first injured during the series with the New York Knickerbockers, early in the opening quarter and did not return.
Wilt Chamberlain, the 7-foot pillar of the 76ers, produced 20 points but was in obvious pain with an ailing right leg.
Williamson Daily News - Apr 10, 1968
DELAWARE COUNTY - April 13, 1968
Club Rated 'Most Courageous' By Hannum as Injuries Mount
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia 76ers could be billed as the best touring troupe In basketball. All they need is a doctor to complete the cast.
Going into the fourth game Sunday of their National Basketball Association playoff series with the Boston Celtics, the 76ers are hurting from head to toe.
So what's new? Injuries have plagued the defending NBA champions since the opening of the season.
"Alex Hannum says this is the most courageous team he's ever coached," says Harvey Pollack, the 76ers' statistician. "The locker room looks like a hospital ward every time I walk in."
Pollack ticked off some of the cases, which read like a medical diary:
-Wilt Chamberlain (partial tear of the calf muscle in his right leg, a strain in his right thigh and an injured right toe):
-Wally Jones (injured knee cartilage):
-Luke Jackson (pulled hamstring muscle):
-Hal Greer (bursitus in his right knee):
-And, Billy Cunningham (broken right wrist).
"That's not mentioning (rookie) Jim Reid who had a knee operation after injuring it the first game of the season," said Pollack, "and Larry Costello," the veteran guard who tore an ankle tendon after one-third of the season was gone.
The most recent injury was to Chamberlain in Friday night's Eastern Division playoff contest with the Celtics.
The dipper was given whirlpool treatments for the calf muscle tear, but Pollack wasn't sure how he'd respond.
The 76ers have nine men in uniform for the best-of-seven playoffs, in which they lead, two games to one.
But whether they'll have anybody left for the finals against the Western Division winner is anybody's guess.
The team's troubles multiplied in the Eastern Division semifinals against the New York Knickerbockers.
Cunningham broke his wrist, knocking him out for the season, Jones and Jackson suffered their injuries and Chamberlain aggravated his perennial toe injury.
And when Boston thumped the 76ers in the opening game of their playoffs here last Friday, some predicted a quick knockout of the injury-riddled champs.
But Philadelphia whacked Boston two straight, including Thursday where an injury actually helped the 76ers cause, points out Pollack.
How so?
"Well, Chamberlain was hurt and he couldn't turn around to score-so he kept feeding Greer, and he scored 31," explained the statistician.