40 Years Later, Tying the Los Angeles Lakers' Record!

Boston Celtics Locker Room:

Back in the locker room, Coach Jack did not praise or encourage everyone as usual. Instead, he harshly criticized every player except Goodwin.

The game had been far too difficult. They had won almost entirely because of Goodwin's outstanding performance alone.

If Goodwin had not insisted on playing all 48 minutes and scored an astonishing 72 points, the outcome of the game would have been difficult to predict.

And all their hard work over the past two months might have gone to waste. They had finally pushed their winning streak to 31 games and were only two wins away from tying the record, only for the entire team to suddenly suffer a collective meltdown.

Just look at the stats: Paul Pierce went 4-for-14, Tony Allen went 2-for-11, Marc Gasol went 4-for-13, Avery Bradley went 0-for-5, Gordon Hayward went 2-for-5...

Looking at those numbers alone, it was practically impossible to imagine that the team had actually won the game.

Goodwin did not defend his teammates against the coach's criticism.

Though the victory had left him exhilarated and overjoyed, once the excitement faded and he calmed down, he began considering what had gone wrong in the game.

This had always been Goodwin's habit. Win or lose, he would seriously reflect on his own performance.

The game's shortcomings were obvious: every one of his teammates had played terribly, something Goodwin had never expected.

Fortunately, their opponent had been one of the weaker teams in the Eastern Conference and was not particularly strong, while he himself had been in excellent form. Otherwise... their winning streak would likely have ended there.

If the streak had really ended like that, Goodwin would have been driven crazy just thinking about it.

It was like leading a race from the starting gun all the