The 1955âÂÂ56 Philadelphia Warriors season George Senesky took over for Eddie Gottlieb as coach, the Warriors had a strong start by winning 12 of their first 16 games. Paul Arizin and Neil Johnston were among the league's scoring leaders as the Warriors won the Eastern Division with a 45âÂÂ27 record. The addition of rookie Tom Gola made the difference. In his first season Gola averaged 9.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. In the Eastern Division Finals the Warriors beat the Syracuse Nationals in 5 games. In the NBA Finals, the Warriors won their 2nd Championship by beating the Fort Wayne Pistons 4 games to 1. The Warriors' 1956 championship marked the first NBA Finals championship won by a team that was established in the National Basketball Association itself (or in this case, the Basketball Association of America precursor) since the Warriors' 1947 BAA Finals championship during the league's inaugural season after the BAA/NBA's prior champions up until this point were won by the American Basketball League's original rendition of the Baltimore Bullets (who have since gone defunct) and the National Basketball League's Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, and Syracuse Nationals. HoopsHype would later rank this championship squad as tied with the 1956âÂÂ57 Boston Celtics from a season later team as the team with the second-easiest path to the NBA Finals ever in 2024 due to them being one of three total championship teams who had playoff opponents that averaged around an average overall record or less during their championship run.
|- | 1 | March 23 | Syracuse | W 109âÂÂ87 | Paul Arizin (29) | Neil Johnston (24) | Gola, Beck (5) | Philadelphia Civic Center | 1âÂÂ0 |- | 2 | March 25 | @ Syracuse | L 112âÂÂ118 | Neil Johnston (43) | Neil Johnston (16) | Neil Johnston (7) | Onondaga War Memorial | 1âÂÂ1 |- | 3 | March 27 | Syracuse | W 119âÂÂ96 | Joe Graboski (20) | Neil Johnston (18) | Tom Gola (10) | Philadelphia Civic Center | 2âÂÂ1 |- | 4 | March 28 | @ Syracuse | L 104âÂÂ108 | Neil Johnston (35) | Neil Johnston (12) | Neil Johnston (7) | Onondaga War Memorial | 2âÂÂ2 |- | 5 | March 29 | Syracuse | W 109âÂÂ104 | Paul Arizin (35) | Neil Johnston (18) | Neil Johnston (8) | Philadelphia Civic Center | 3âÂÂ2 |-
|- | 1 | March 31 | Fort Wayne | W 98âÂÂ94 | Paul Arizin (28) | Neil Johnston (14) | Tom Gola (10) | Philadelphia Civic Center<br>4,128 | 1âÂÂ0 |- | 2 | April 1 | @ Fort Wayne | L 83âÂÂ84 | Paul Arizin (27) | Arizin, Johnston (9) | Ernie Beck (6) | War Memorial Coliseum<br>6,976 | 1âÂÂ1 |- | 3 | April 3 | Fort Wayne | W 100âÂÂ96 | Paul Arizin (27) | Neil Johnston (14) | Tom Gola (8) | Philadelphia Civic Center<br>11,698 | 2âÂÂ1 |- | 4 | April 5 | @ Fort Wayne | W 107âÂÂ105 | Paul Arizin (30) | Tom Gola (9) | Joe Graboski (7) | War Memorial Coliseum<br>7,852 | 3âÂÂ1 |- | 5 | April 7 | Fort Wayne | W 99âÂÂ88 | Joe Graboski (29) | Joe Graboski (16) | Jack George (10) | Philadelphia Civic Center<br>11,194 | 4âÂÂ1 |-