Chamberlain experienced a problematic and often frustrating season. Van Breda Kolff benched him several times, which never happened in his career before; in mid-season, the perennial scoring champion had two games in which he scored only six and then only two points. Playing through his problems, Chamberlain averaged 20.5 points and 21.1 rebounds a game that season. However, Jack Kent Cooke was pleased, because since acquiring Chamberlain, ticket sales went up by 11%. In the 1969 NBA Playoffs, the Lakers dispatched Chamberlain's old club, the San Francisco Warriors 4–2 after losing the first two games, and then defeated the Atlanta Hawks and met Chamberlain's familiar rivals, Bill Russell's Boston Celtics. Going into the series as 3-to-1 favorites, the Lakers won the first two games, but dropped the next two. Chamberlain was criticized as a non-factor in the series, getting neutralized by Bill Russell with little effort. But in Game 5, the Lakers center scored 13 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, leading Los Angeles to a 117–104 win. In Game 6, the Celtics won 99–90, and Chamberlain only scored 8 points; Cherry accuses him of choking, because if "Chamberlain had come up big and put up a normal 30 point scoring night", L.A. would have probably won its first championship.