When Portland tips off at Denver Saturday night, it will be on the 44th anniversary of game one of the 1977 NBA Finals. That means that this Saturday night, Portland will begin their 43rd attempt to win a second championship. It’s been four decades, and then some since the then-seven-year-old franchise won its first and only title to date.
Will this be the magical year they emerge victorious from their opponents and raise their second banner to the rafters? Based on some good mojo between this year’s playoff field and the one they faced in 1977, signs point to maybe.
Portland can come pretty damn close to a repeat of their 1977 title based on matchups.
While they can’t face Chicago in the first round as they did that year (Chicago was in the western conference from 1970-80), each of their other three opponents from those playoffs is in the postseason this year, thanks to the Lakers earning the 7th seed after winning their play-in game on Wednesday.
This year looks a lot different due to the condensed schedule, delayed start, the first round of the playoffs beginning in late May (a month later than typical years), and a global pandemic still working its way out of our lives. 1977 was a bizarre year also, but for very different reasons. It was the first year of the newly merged ABA/NBA, with players from the defunct league joining the NBA via the four ABA teams that joined the league. Those rosters were divided amongst NBA teams via a dispersal draft for the two ABA teams that were eliminated (Kentucky and St Louis). Portland drafted Kentucky forward Maurice Lucas, an ABA All-Star in 1976, to pair with budding but oft-injured center Bill Walton. Portland also drafted Moses Malone but traded him to Buffalo for a draft pick. That draft pick wasn’t the only asset Portland added, as they also hired Buffalo’s head coach, Dr. Jack Ramsay.
The new-look Blazers were a good team in the regular season, but no one expected big things from them as they finished 2nd in their division and 3rd in their conference behind LA and Denver. In the 1977 Western Conference playoffs, Portland shocked everyone as they didn’t just cruise through the playoffs. They went on a terror. Behind the stellar play of Walton and Lucas on both ends and the up-tempo play of their guards, they played in 13 games total against Chicago, Denver, and the LA. They won 10 games, only dropping three, and swept the Lakers. The sweep of LA in the conference finals is crazy to look back on, as the Lakers were one of the best teams in the league, had a 3-1 record vs. Portland in the regular season, and had arguably the best player in the league with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his prime. But this team was just on another level in the playoffs, and so was Walton.
It looked like Portland was the perfect combination of old-school big man basketball, and fast-paced passing and scoring, with great chemistry between the young Walton and their guards. However, their opponent in the ‘77 NBA Finals was anything but a pushover, as the star-studded 76ers (led by Julius Erving, Darryll Dawkins, and George McGinnis) brought Portland back to reality with consecutive losses to take a 2-0 lead heading into game three. It looked bleak, but it would turn out to be the final fork in the road for Portland, as they won the next four games en route to their first title.
And that brings us to the game this weekend, where Damian Lillard begins his quest to do what no Portland player has done since Walton completed his mission on June 5th, 1977 – and what Clyde Drexler came devastatingly close to accomplishing – bring this city a second NBA championship.
Today, the Trail Blazers Finals drought stands at 28 years; the title drought stands 43 years. And while it will take beating the Nuggets before they can even think about moving on, they need to come to terms with that they likely aren’t winning another title until they can unseat the Lakers. Portland won their first playoff series against the Lakers and has not defeated them since. Sure they beat them in 1992, but that was without Magic Johnson, so I’m not sure it counts. Even if we count that 92 series, Portland is a very unsettling 2-10 in the playoffs against LA. It stands to reason that they’re going to have to get past the Lakers if they want a second championship, so the next time Portland defeats the Lakers in a best of seven series will likely be the next time they get back to the Finals and win. There’s no logic behind that, but it’s the greatest parallel between the Blazers’ first title and what is expected to happen on the way to their second championship. To get back to the top of the NBA mountain, they will have to exorcise their playoff demons.
Even if it’s not the Lakers Portland has to play through to win it all, it’s likely going to take a Herculean effort and all-time great postseason from Lillard and company to get back to the Finals, let alone win it. The Western bracket is full of star-studded teams that are really good on the court and on paper. That doesn’t mean Portland needs to play above their talent level; what it means is that they finally need to play AT their talent level. This team has amazing talent on paper; they just haven’t put it all together when it matters most. I do like their chances this year, and by Lillard’s own words, he feels healthier now than he has in a long time at this point in the season. And that’s saying something since he had a few months off between the end of the regular season and the start of the NBA bubble last season.
There isn’t really a player comparable to Lillard in Blazers’ history, but Walton’s style is eerily similar to Jusuf Nurkic, right down to their passing proficiency and injury issues. If Portland can get an all-time postseason out of Nurkic, it might mean the difference between just another playoff berth and a second title.
Let’s hope we get a great playoff performance from the Trail Blazers, but more than that, we get invited to the second Portland Trail Blazers championship parade in the team’s history. Wouldn’t that be a great way to end the 2021 season? It’s not likely, but it’s not unlikely either – once you’re in, it’s anyone’s tournament to win.
Never tell me the odds, but I sure do like those odds.
