The 1975 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1974-75 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeating the Eastern Conference champion Washington Bullets, four games to none in the NBA Finals. Rick Barry of the Warriors was named NBA Finals MVP.
The Warriors won their third NBA championship, first since 1956 as the Philadelphia Warriors, and as of 2011, their most recent title.
The playoff format was revised again, as the result of which the first two finishers in each division were guaranteed playoff berths, along with the best third-place team from each conference. Once each conference's qualifiers were selected, they were seeded 1 through 5, with the fourth and fifth seeds playing in a best-of-three series, with the victor advancing to play the first seed in a best-of-seven semifinal, while the second and third seeds played the other semifinal.
The eight-year-old Seattle SuperSonics made their playoff debut in 1975, winning the first playoff series in franchise history against the Detroit Pistons. Seattle would go on to make consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 1978 and 1979, winning the championship the latter year.
The Kansas City-Omaha Kings made their first postseason appearance since 1967 as the Cincinnati Royals, and the Houston Rockets made their first playoff appearance since 1969 when they played in San Diego.
The 1975 playoffs featured an expansion in the number of postseason qualifiers from 8 to 10 teams; it would be expanded to 12 in 1977 and again to its current number of 16 in 1984.
At the time, this was the closest the Chicago Bulls would ever come to an NBA title, losing in seven games to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. They wouldn't make it this far again until 1989, this time as a member of the Eastern Conference. They would finally win an NBA title two years later.
Contents |
| First Round | Conference Semifinals | Conference Finals | NBA Finals | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Golden State | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Seattle | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Seattle | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Detroit | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Golden State | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Chicago | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Kansas City | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Chicago | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Golden State | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Washington | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Boston | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Houston | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Houston | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | New York | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Boston | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Washington | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Buffalo | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Washington | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
Champion: Golden State Warriors
1st Round
(1) Golden State Warriors, (2) Chicago Bulls & (3) Kansas City Kings have first round byes.
(4) Seattle SuperSonics vs. (5) Detroit Pistons: Sonics win series 2-1
Conference Semifinals
(1) Golden State Warriors vs. (4) Seattle SuperSonics: Warriors win series 4-2
(2) Chicago Bulls vs. (3) Kansas City Kings: Bulls win series 4-2
Conference Finals
(1) Golden State Warriors vs. (2) Chicago Bulls: Warriors win series 4-3
Champion: Washington Bullets
1st Round
(1) Boston Celtics, (2) Washington Bullets & (3) Buffalo Braves have first round byes.
(4) Houston Rockets vs. (5) New York Knicks: Rockets win series 2-1
Conference Semifinals
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (4) Houston Rockets: Celtics win series 4-1
(2) Washington Bullets vs. (3) Buffalo Braves: Bullets win series 4-3
Conference Finals
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Washington Bullets: Bullets win series 4-2
(1) Washington Bullets vs. (1) Golden State Warriors: Warriors win series 4-0
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