The 1977 NBA Finals: Blazer-mania vs 76ers

Imagine a city that never tasted playoff basketball, a team of misfits cast offs in a red hair center. Now picture them facing a powerhouse stacked with the legends and a team led by Julius Irvings on the NBA's biggest stage after their biggest merger and biggest expansion. That was the summer of nineteen seventy seven, when the Portland Trail Blazers took on the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, colliding in a series that would ignite a city and redefines underdog glory, changing the league forever. This was a story about how blazer Mania was born and how the team on the brink came back for one of the most unforgettable runs through NBA Finals histories. Join us as we dive into the nineteen seventy seven NBA Finals, a moment when basketball history was made and the impossible became a reality. Let's go. Welcome to Daily Sports History. Am e than Reevees your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge to nineteen seventy six. Seventy seven season was an important season in NBA history. This was the year of the merger the ABA had officially merged with the NBA, bringing over the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the Denver Nuggets, and the New York Nets, which, besides it being merger, it was a big expansion for the league. They went from eighteen teams to twenty two in one season, and twenty two teams that had quality players and could compete at a good level. But the NBA had some great teams they had to compete with, and one of them was the Portland Trail Blazers, who started blazer Mania that year. It was their seventh season in the NBA and they won twenty two of their first thirty one games, getting everyone in the city excited as their big acquisition a few years earlier in the number one pick, and Bill Walton was finally healthy and showing why he was the number one pick, averaging over eighteen points, fourteen rebounds, three assists, and three blocks a game and had a great running mate in Maurice Lucas who averaged twenty points and eleven rebounds a game as well, and they also got key contributions from Lionel Hollins and Bob Gross and they would go on to finish the season forty nine and thirty three, which was good enough to give them the three seed in the Western Conference playoffs. In the first round, they would face off against the Chicago Bulls. I remember not as many teams Chicago was in the West at the time, and they beat them two to one. And then in the semis they faced off against the Different Nuggets, an Aba team that showed they were ready to compete right away and they took them to six games with their high powered offense, but the Blazers were able to tamper it down and to get the win to go on to the Western Conference Finals, facing off against the legendary Los Angeles Lakers led by Kareem aldou Jabbar. They were the number one seed in the West that year, and despite having Kareem, they didn't have magic yet and unfortunately they got swept by blazer Mania and they would go on to face the winner of the Eastern Conference in the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Now, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers had a great season, finishing second in the league with fifty wins and first in the Eastern Conference, led by doctor J. Julius Irving, who averaged over twenty one points in eight rebounds a game and had running mate future Hall of Famer George McGinnis and Doug Collins, a good solid three. Heading into the playoffs, they would have the number one seed, so they would get a bye in the first round and in the semi finals they would face off against the Boston Celtics led by John Havilchek, but they were no match but and they would lead them to a grueling seven game series with eventually seventy six Ers coming out on top, which would lead to the Eastern Conference Finals where their face off against the Houston Rockets. Yes, Houston was in the East and Chicago was in the West. It was a weird time, Okay, just weird time, but the showcase. But the Rockets came out and the Rockets were led by Moses Malone in a rookie in John Lucas. Fortunately, it wasn't enough and the Sixers prevailed in six games, heading the NBA Finals. Game One happens in Philadelphia where in the first quarter Doctor J goes and makes a statement doing a windmill dunk, showing off what he's named after. But it was still a close game after the first quarter, twenty seven to twenty five, and the second quarter would be much of the same, where they would trade off baskets, leading to Philadelphia heading into half with a two point lead. They'd come out of halftime and the Sixers would continue their success and they would take an eight point lead. Portland was struggling to maintain the ball, turning it over multiple times and they would finish the game with thirty four turnovers. So Game two comes up again in Philadelphia and Doug Collins and Julius Serving again come out aggressively and they would lead the way thirty one to twenty six after the first quarter, and the Sixers came out in the second and put a clamp on Portland as they scored just seventeen points in the second quarter, and they would use this defense to lead to offense and they would open up the lead to eighteen points at halftime sixty one to forty three. But Portland wasn't gonna give up that came out, they regrouped and in the third quarter Bill Walton would battle inside to try to take away some of what was going on. But despite what he was doing, the team itself was shooting poorly, only thirty six percent from the field. And again having multiple turnovers. They would end up with twenty nine in this game, and the game started to get physical. With is five minutes left in the game, Darryl Dawkins of Philadelphia would battle with Bob Gross after a rebound and both benches would be cleared and in melee Today would be front page news, but back then it was kind of common. Now multiple players would be ejected and later fined, but overall all the players would be okay. But Philadelphia took the win one oh seven to eighty nine in commanding fashion with a two old series lead. If you have a two to oh series lead in the NBA playoffs, that team usually wins ninety two percent of the time. But luckily, the series was now going to be heading in to Portland, and Portland had blazer Mania going on and they really came out to support the team and ale the gates. They would score thirty four points in the first quarter and would hold Philadelphia to just twenty one, but in the second Philadelphia would bounce back and would bring the game into a seven point game at the half, and the game would still be a back and forth game throughout the rest of the game, and then turning point for the game didn't come till the fourth quarter, with the score ninety one to eighty seven. Bill Walton tipped in an aliu pass from Bob Gross over Dawkins and it not Walton to the floor, and then the Blazers would steal the ball on the inbound and bill Walton would get another all you dunk, really cementing the game as they poured in forty two points in the fourth quarter to pull away and win the game one twenty nine to one oh seven, where Bill Walton had twenty points and eighteen rebounds and one just shy of a triple double, and Maurice Lucas would lead the way for the team with twenty seven points. Philadelphia was only now up two to one, and in Game four again in Portland, Portland followed the same kind of trajectory. In the first quarter, they dominated Philadelphia, holding them to just sixteen points as they scored twenty nine, giving them a great leg up. But Philadelphia would find its rhythm a little bit, but not enough, as Portland would lead by eleven points at half, and Portland would explode coming out of half, scoring forty one points, opening the game wide up and the seventy six ers just could not keep up and they would basically relinquish the game. Despite trading blows in the fourth quarter. Portland would win in a blowout one thirty to ninety eight in a game where Bill Walton wasn't the vocal point scoring only twelve points and having thirteen rebounds, but were led by Lionel Hall with twenty five points and Maurice Lucas with twenty four and having Now the series was tied to two, so Game five heads back to Philadelphia, but Portland continues their streak of hot starts and great defense, holding Philly to just fifteen points in the first quarter, giving them a seven point lead. But Doctor J and Duck Collins would keep the game close as it became more and more physical, and they went into half up just four. Coming out a halftime, Portland exploded for forty points, led by Johnny Davis off the bench with eight assist and they took a commanding twenty two point lead, and Doctor J would do whatever he could and would end up scoring thirty seven points in the game to try to get them back, but unfortunately it was just a little bit too late, as with under a minute left. Philadelphia closed the game within six, but Portland held their own and won one oh ten to one oh four, taking the lead three to two in the series, needing only one more game to get their very first NBA championship. The city welcomed back Portland from Game five with over five thousand fans at the airport. Just something we don't have to day due to security reasons, but still so came Game six in Portland in front of almost thirteen thousand fans, making blazer Mania throughout the town go in. Game six opened on June fifth, nineteen seventy seven, and it was intense and tight game, trading baskets back and forth until that first quarter was close. The second quarter showed Blazers were just too hot to handle, scoring forty points in the second being led by Maurice Lucas and Bob Gross on the offensive and Bill Walton distributing and garrabbing all the rebounds he could. They had a fifteen point lead at half sixty five to fifty, but Doctor J would not let the game just go and he was relentless. He would finish scoring forty points in the game, but it just wasn't enough to get by Bill Walton, who would end up having twenty three rebounds in eight blocks in the game, but Julius Irving and George McGinnis combined to her twenty eight points in the final towards the end of the game to lead the charge to bring it close, as within just under a minute left, the Blazers held on to just a narrow lead, but with five seconds left, filled the inbound of the ball down two, George McGinnis drove and took a contested jumper and missed. All ten players crashed the board, but Bill Walton left above the crowd and batted the ball up the court as time expired and the crowd erupted as the Portland Trailblazers it just became NBA Champions and Bill Walton was dynamic. He averaged eighteen points, nineteen rebound, five assists and three blocks throughout the series. And this game was marked by ABA and NBA merger as Doctor j had come over from the ABA along with Maurice Lucas, showing the new style they were bringing to the NBA. Even though these were two NBA teams facing off, but it showed that the ABA was here to make a difference now. Following this season, the Blazers took a major blow when Bill Walton would get injured again and really would continue injuries throughout the rest of his career after this. He never really was able to get them back to that moment and would get traded years later in Portland. Would have to start over and over again as they would famously miss out on Michael Jordan, but they were a consistent team as they would have Clyde Drexer take over the mantle after Walton left and help stabilize the team, and for the next twenty seven seasons they would make the playoffs twenty six times, showing consistency but never enough to win out though they did make the finals, losing to Michael Jordan, who could have been on their team if they only would have picked them in the nineteen eighties, but they have still yet to win another championship. Now. The seventy six Yers became a powerhouse in the East in the following years and they would make the finals the next year but fall short again, and they would continue to make the finals and fall short, losing in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty two, but in nineteen eighty three, they added Moses Malone to their team, and they would finally defeat the Lakers, claiming their third title, but would also be their last, as they only made the finals again in two thousand and one with Alan Iverson and have not made it since. They have remained one of the most story franchises, making the playoffs fifty four times, only having three championships, and always searching for that. One more question is who do you think of these teams will win their next title. I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please make sure you like and subscribe wherever you're listening. That way, you do not miss a single episode. We'll see you on the next episode.