CBS Sports: NBA 1978-NBA Finals-Game 7-Washington Wizards @ Seattle Sonics: Closing Minutes

Source:The New Democrat. 

What I think is the most impressive part of the Bullets in this game and especially in the fourth quarter, is that their best player and scorer power forward Elvin Hays fouls out halfway through the fourth quarter. But that just tells you how deep this Bullets team was with their center Wes Unseld, who was the leader of the team, stepping up with a couple of key buckets, foul shots, a key assist, big rebounds. And the Bob Dandridge and Charlie Johnson hitting some big shots as well, to prevent the Sonics from coming back. And don’t forget about Mitch Kupchak coming from the bench to replace Elvin and playing well and hitting a key bucket of his own. You really know how good of a team you have, when your best player is not available to play. And the Bullets won the rest of the game and the 1978 NBA Finals without Big E.

NBA History: NBA 1978-NBA Finals-Washington Wizards vs Seattle Sonics: Highlights

Source:The New Democrat

Someone or somewhere, perhaps coming from Hollywood like on late night talk shows, said that the Bullets would win the NBA Finals when the Fat Lady sings. Which of course is an old American cliché. And they said that, because the Bullets by 1978 had already been to the NBA Finals twice in the 1970s and not only lost both times, but were swept both times. And they were a huge favorite in 1975 against the San Francisco Warriors, but were swept 4-0. So people knew the Bullets were good, if not real good, just not good enough to win the Finals. Perhaps they folded under pressure, or whatever the case.

So in 1978 when the Bullets just struggled to make the Eastern Conference Playoffs with a 44-38 record and then went on a great playoff run and won three series where they were never the favorite to win, including beating their big rival the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals. There was the local campaign going on in Washington, something to the effect that it is time to get the Fad Lady to sing, because this is the year the Bullets win the championship. The Bullets fans picked up on that and that is exactly what happened in 78 as the Bullets finally won the NBA Finals.

CBS Sports: NBA 1975-NBA Finals-Game 3-Washington Wizards @ San Francisco Warriors: 2nd Half

Source:The New Democrat  

You would thing being down 0-2 in a series where you are the overwhelming favorite to not just win the series, but win the series in 4-5 games and being down would be all the motivation needed for a team that won sixty games in the regular season to come out and play their best game of the season. Because you go down 0-3 to any NBA team, especially a good team that Warriors certainly were in 1975, you are not going to win. When a team comes back from being down 0-3 in an NBA Finals to win the series or even stretch it to seven games, than I’ll believe it is possible.

But the K.C. Jones led Bullets came out sloppy in the first half of this game, with all the turnovers and giving up a lot of easy buckets. And basically they looked like the way they played in-game one and two of this Finals, with the Warriors playing their game on both offense and defense. Taking away the Bullets key players on offense and playing their team game of offense. And not relying on just one or two players to beat the Bullets. But really, their whole team played well in this Finals.

CBS Sports: NBA 1978-Los Angeles Lakers @ Washington Wizards: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Highlights

Source:The New Democrat

Interesting video about Kareem, considering that the Bullets won this game and the Lakers lost. But the person who did the video decides to show Kareem’s highlights in this game. But again in this video, you see how great a player that Kareem was. Not just as a scorer in the post, but the great defensive player and rebounder that he was. And how big, tall and strong that he was. Where you got a tank in Bullets center Wes Unseld, who was built like a defensive lineman. And yet Kareem was consistently getting great position against Big Wes in the post.

This game is one of those deals that the other team’s great player can have a big game. As long as we win the game and Kareem’s teammates aren’t killing us as well. What you see here is the Bullets without a traditional center anyway. The Bullets tallest player at least in their starting lineup was Elvin Hays. A 6’9 strong power forward, but a power forward and someone who didn’t play center as their first position. But would play center to give Wes Unseld a break. Unseld was the Bullets center and a great defender, rebounder and passer, but he was 6’6 maybe 6’7. Sort of like the Charles Barkley of the center position size wise. And Kareem could easily shoot over both Bullets big men.

CBS Sports: NBA 1975- Washington Wizards @ Buffalo Braves: Bob McAdoo's 50 Points

Source:CBS Sports- the Wizards and Braves in the 1975 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs.

"Bob McAdoo puts up one of the best playoffs scoring performances ever. He scores 50 points, despite the fact that the Bullets have a four defender rotation on Big Mac. McAdoo also crashed the boards as he had 10 in the 3rd quarter, I don't know how much he could have had for the whole game. A well-deserved standing ovation from the noisy Buffalo crowd, an out-of-his-mind Oscar Robertson screaming while announcing the game and the series tied at 2-2 after McAdoo's career game. April 18, 1975." 

From Lamar Matic 

Anytime there’s a choice between having the player who scored the most points in a game and the team that scored the most points in a game, especially a playoff game, I would always take the team. 

When one player scores fifty points and his team loses, it generally means he was doing most of the scoring for his team in that game. And that his teammates weren’t doing much damage to the other team. Classic example of Michael Jordan vs. the Boston Celtics in the 1986 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, where he scored sixty points in back-to-back games, but the Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls in both games and beat them badly.

That is how you defended Bob McAdoo when he was with the Buffalo Braves. You guarded him tough and you tried to stop him. But not to the point where it would free up other Braves to beat you with open shots and layups. 

Now it so happens that the Braves won this game and Big Bob was able to put the Braves on his back. But the Bullets won this series, because they had a better team, even if the Braves had the better player in the series. 

Good teams, or in the Bullets case very good teams, if not great teams, generally beat teams that have a great player, if that player doesn’t have a very good supporting cast around him. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on Blogger.

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You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.   

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

Turner Sports: NBA 1987-Chicago Bulls @ Washington Wizards: Michael Jordan Highlights

Source:Real Life Journal 

Don’t worry Wizards fans, the Bullets as they were called back then and I wish they were still called now, or at least something that actually has something to do with Washington, instead of Los Angeles, which is what the Wizards sounds like, but the Bullets won this game. Michael Jordan having a big night for, Da Bulls! But no other Bull doing much damage to the Bullets, who as a team scored 119 points against, Da Bulls! During this game, after already wrapping up another playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. In reality, MJ wasn’t by himself before Scottie Pippen, as far as having other players who could score. This Bulls team also had Orlando Woolridge, Gene Banks and Charles Oakley. But for the Bulls to beat really good teams and even deep teams, that the Bullets were back then, MJ had to do a lot of the work on his own.

CBS Sports: NBA 1975-NBA-Finals-San Francisco Warriors vs Washington Wizards: Feature

Source:Real Life Journal

The 1975 NBA Finals and perhaps the 1978 NBA Finals are two Finals the Bullets would love have to have back. Because they both cost them opportunities to be the NBA team of the 1970s. And being able to win three NBA Finals in that decade, instead of just the lone championship in 1978. When they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1971 Finals, I believe at least they lost to a better team. But in 75 and 79, they were the clear favorites going in and could’ve won both Finals in five games.

The 1975 San Francisco Warriors as I called them, I guess they could now be called the Oakland Warriors since they play in Oakland, but the 75 Warriors were a very good team. Great player in Rick Barry, sort of like the Larry Bird of the 1970s with his ability to shoot, pass and handle the ball at the small forward position. A great head coach in Al Attles and a very good supporting case around Barry. But the Bullets had the better team and better players, but were simply beat in this series.

CBS Sports: NBA 1975-NBA Finals-Game 3-Washington Wizards @ San Francisco Warriors: First Half

Source:Real Life Journal 

The Bullets down 0-2 in this series after losing game one at home and game two on the road. Don’t know why the NBA scheduled the NBA Finals that way back then going home and home instead of the first two games at one arena and the next two at the other team’s arena, but that is a different story. The Bullets still in San Francisco trying to avoid being down 0-3 in this series, a series that they were supposed to win going in and were a heavy favorite. And yes the Warriors played very well in this series. But the Bullets probably didn’t take them seriously enough and had a big let down.  

I think the Bullets were also out coached in this series. Al Attles did a great job in this series and always made the right moves and knew from the first game how his team needed to play to beat the Bullets. Dick Motta for the Bullets never figured out the Warriors and exactly what they were doing and how to attack them. And they were never really able to get their big man power forward Elvin Hays involved and dominating a smaller team that the Warriors had. And not having Elvin at his best cost the Bullets in this series.

CBS Sports: NBA 1979-NBA Finals-Game 5-Seattle Sonics @ Washington Wizards: Fourth Quarter

Source:Real Life Journal

The 1979 NBA Finals was one of the closest played NBA Finals of all-time. Even though it was just a five-game series with Seattle winning the series. But the games were very close, it’s just that the Sonics made more plays, especially in the clutch than the Bullets. The key bucket, the key defensive stop, the key rebound. Similar to the 1975 NBA Finals between the Bullets and San Francisco Warriors, the Sonics simply played better as a team than the Bullets. Even though I at least believe the Bullets had better personal in both 75 and 79 and finally won the NBA Finals in 78.  

I’m not sure we ever got to see how good the Bullets could’ve been in the 1970s. I don’t think we ever saw the great team that they had the potential to be, at least not in the NBA Finals. The 1978 team that finally won the Finals, was 44-38 in the regular season. They had all sorts of injuries during the regular season and didn’t play very consistently. Finally got healthy late in the 78 season in time to make the great playoff run that they did in the Eastern Conference. And beating the Sonics at Seattle in-game 7 to finally win their first NBA Finals.

CBS Sports: NBA 1978-NBA Finals-Game 7-Washington Wizards @ Seattle Sonics: Highlights

Source:Real Life Journal

1978 was the NBA Finals that the Bullets looked ready for and ready to play and win. Rather than expecting to win it, because they were there in 1975. So you see a much more professional and better prepared Bullets teams in this finals, than you did in 1975 when they were swept by the San Francisco Warriors. The Bullets almost won game 1 in Seattle, I believe at the Kingdome and won all three home games in Landover at the Capital Centre. So winning this game is something that was perhaps not surprising to the Bullets themselves, because they knew how close they were in game 1 at Seattle. 

Sometimes very good if not great teams need to lose and lose big even when it comes to championships. Because they really aren’t as good as people around them think they are and have a tendency to believe their own hype and rely on that to win. Instead of continuing to do what got them to the championship in the first place which was being a great team and playing like one. And beating very good if not great teams just to get to the championship. And that might be what happened to the Bullets in 75. That they needed to learn to be a champion, you have to play like one and not expect it to happen, simply because of who you are.

Lamar Matic: Video: NBA 1986-ECQF-Game 1-Washington Wizards @ Philadelphia 76ers: Wizards Score 18 Straight Points to Win

Source:The Daily Press

Definitely one of the most surprising comeback victories of all-time and perhaps the best comeback in Bullets playoff history. You come back from eighteen points with four minutes left in the game especially in a playoff game, you are getting a lot of breaks with the team with the lead falling asleep and thinking they’ve already won the game. Which is what the 76ers did, as well as the Bullets never giving up and coming up with a lot of great plays. Especially on defense, but scoring every time they have the ball. When you have a big lead like this, all you really have to do is work the clock, don’t turn the ball over and hit your foul shots. You do all of those things and even if the other team scores every time they have the ball, they won’t have enough time to come all the way back. The 76ers failed to even do these basic fundamental things late in this game.