1977 NBA Finals

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The 1977 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1976-1977 NBA season. The Portland Trail Blazers of the Western Conference played against the Philadelphia 76ers of the Eastern Conference, with the 76ers holding home-court advantage. Their 4 regular season meetings had been split evenly, 2-2, with neither side winning away from home. The series was played under a best-of-seven format, so the first team to win four games would win the series and become the league champions.

The 1976-77 NBA season started with the merging of the ABA into the NBA. Portland had benefited from the dispersal draft where they acquired power forward Maurice Lucas to partner with Bill Walton, and Philadelphia had signed ABA All-Star and 3-time ABA MVP Julius "Dr. J" Erving, who had taken the New York Nets to the ABA title the previous year. While it was no surprise that Philadelphia had made it to the championship series, having posted the best record in the east (50-32, #1), Portland's appearance in the finals was. Portland, a team that was founded only 7 years earlier, was not only making its playoffs debut with its first winning season (49-33, #3), but amazingly it was also making its finals debut after sweeping the mighty Los Angeles Lakers and league legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 4-0 in the Western Conference Finals.

The series quickly went 2-0 in favor of Philadelphia, but over the next four games, Portland mounted an unheard-of series comeback that has rarely been seen in professional sports.

Contents

[edit] Series Summary

Game Date Home Team Result Road Team
Game 1 May 22 Philadelphia 107-101 Portland
Game 2 May 26 Philadelphia 107-89 Portland
Game 3 May 29 Portland 129-107 Philadelphia
Game 4 May 31 Portland 130-98 Philadelphia
Game 5 June 3 Philadelphia 104-110 Portland
Game 6 June 5 Portland 109-107 Philadelphia

Trail Blazers win series 4-2

[edit] Games 1

Game 1 started with a Dr. J windmill slam dunk off the opening tip, and never got much better for the Blazers, who committed 34 turnovers. Erving scored 33 points and Doug Collins had 30, as the 76ers won 107-101. Walton finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds.

[edit] Game 2

Game 2 was an easy win for the 76ers at 107-89, who at one point scored 14 points in under 3 minutes. Though in the final 5 minutes a fight between Philadelphia's Darryl Dawkins and Portland's Bob Gross cleared both benches and brought coaches, fans, security guards and officials into the fray. Dawkins and Lucas were ejected, and Collins needed four stitches after he caught a punch from Dawkins that had missed its target. Dawkins and Lucas were each fined $2,500.

[edit] Game 3

The series moved to Portland for the next two games, and game 3 got underway following a few tense moments as Lucas approached the Philadelphia bench before the game and offered his hand in friendship to Dawkins and the 76ers. The Blazers offense took charge of the game, and posted a 42-point fourth quarter to win 129-107. Lucas had 27 points and 12 rebounds, and Walton contributed 20 points, 18 rebounds, and 9 assists.

[edit] Game 4

Philadelphia attempted to utilize George McGinnis and Caldwell Jones on the inside for Game 4, but Walton had other ideas, going on a shotblocking frenzy. Portland quickly led the game by 17 points and never looked back, scoring 41 points in the 3rd quarter and winning 130-98, the largest margin of victory in a game 4 in NBA history.

[edit] Game 5

Game 5 returned to Philadelphia with the series tied 2-2. Philadelphia spent much of the first half fouling the Blazers, racking up 22 personal fouls and sending the half-time score into the 40s. The Blazers added another 40 points to their total in the 3rd quarter, and with a little over 8 minutes left in the game, Portland led 91-69. Erving rallied his team late in the fourth, scoring 37 points himself, but ultimately lost 110-104. Portland set numerous rebounding records for its team, 59 (48 defensive, team record) in all which stood until 1985, 24 (20 defensive, another team record) of which belonged to Walton alone, whose team record still stands.

[edit] Game 6

Portland, now leading the series 3-2, arrived back home for Game 6 in the middle of the night to a crowd of 5,000 fans waiting at the airport. With just 48 minutes separating the Blazers from their first championship, "Blazermania" had gripped the city. Philadelphia kept the game close throughout the first quarter, but were down by 15 at halftime after the Blazers netted 40 points in the 2nd quarter. Erving tried in vain to force a game 7 for his team, scoring 40 points, but Bill Walton's 23 rebounds and 8 blocks kept the game in Portland's hands, as Philadelphia's George McGinnis missed the game-tying shot with seconds left sent for a heart stopping 109-107 Portland win.

Bill Walton was named finals MVP and was called "an inspiration" by the defeated Julius Erving. Maurice Lucas later said of Walton's post-game thrown jersey that was sent into the rushing crowd of fans, "if I had caught the shirt, I would have eaten it. Bill's my hero."

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
1976 NBA Finals		 NBA Finals
1977		 Succeeded by:
1978 NBA Finals
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