1975 NBA Finals
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Dates | May 18–25 | |||||||||
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Western Finals | Warriors defeated Bulls, 4–3 | |||||||||
The 1975 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the
The Warriors' home games were played at the
The series is notable as it was the first championship game or series in any of the major U.S. professional sports leagues to feature two black head coaches or managers, as Al Attles coached the Warriors and K. C. Jones coached the Bullets.[4]
Background
Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors last made the NBA Finals in 1967, when they were still in San Francisco. In the years since, they moved to Oakland, briefly lost Rick Barry to the American Basketball Association, and named Warriors great Al Attles as head coach. Before the start of the 1974–75 season they traded future Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond to the Chicago Bulls for young center Clifford Ray. They also drafted Jamaal Wilkes, then known as Keith Wilkes, out of UCLA. With Barry as the offensive leader, and with Attles using a team approach to coaching, the Warriors managed to finish the season atop the Western Conference with 48 wins. In the playoffs, they defeated the Seattle SuperSonics in six games, then eliminated Thurmond and the Bulls in seven games to advance to the Finals.
Washington Bullets
The
Road to the Finals
Golden State Warriors (Western Conference champion) | Washington Bullets (Eastern Conference champion)
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Regular season |
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Earned first-round bye | First Round | Earned first-round bye | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Defeated the (4) Seattle SuperSonics, 4–2 | Conference Semifinals | Defeated the (3) Buffalo Braves, 4–3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Defeated the (2) Chicago Bulls, 4–3 | Conference Finals | Defeated the (1) Boston Celtics, 4–2 |
Regular season series
Washington won the regular season series 3–1.
January 4, 1975
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Washington Bullets 96, Golden State Warriors 104
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Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California |
February 6, 1975
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Washington Bullets 98, Golden State Warriors 97
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Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California |
Series summary
Game | Date | Home team | Result | Road team |
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Game 1 | May 18 | Washington Bullets | 95–101 (0–1) | Golden State Warriors |
Game 2 | May 20 | Golden State Warriors | 92–91 (2–0) | Washington Bullets |
Game 3 | May 23 | Golden State Warriors | 109–101 (3–0) | Washington Bullets |
Game 4 | May 25 | Washington Bullets | 95–96 (0–4) | Golden State Warriors |
Golden State wins the series, 4–0.
This was the first time in NBA Finals history in which the team who did not have home court advantage swept the series. This has happened only one time since, in 1995, when the Houston Rockets swept the Orlando Magic.
Game summaries
Game 1
Game 1 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total |
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Warriors | 17 | 23 | 31 | 30 | 101 |
Bullets | 27 | 27 | 18 | 23 | 95 |
Opting to open the series at home, the Bullets built a 14-point lead at the half over the Warriors at the Capital Centre. The Warriors began to storm back, with Phil Smith coming off the bench to score 20 points in 31 minutes of playing time, as Golden State took the first game, 101–95. [1]
Game 2
Game 2 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total |
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Bullets | 28 | 24 | 21 | 18 | 91 |
Warriors | 19 | 27 | 27 | 19 | 92 |
Instead of their familiar
Game 3
Game 3 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total |
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Bullets | 21 | 27 | 23 | 30 | 101 |
Warriors | 26 | 24 | 27 | 32 | 109 |
Rick Barry poured in 38 points and backup center George Johnson had 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench to help the Warriors to a key Game 3 109–101 win.
Two major factors enabling the Warriors to take an insurmountable lead were the defensive play of the seemingly undersized Jamaal Wilkes on Bullets' power forward Elvin Hayes and the play of the Warrior bench. In three games, Hayes had only 29 points and the Warriors' bench players had outscored the Bullets' reserves 115–53. [3]
Game 4
Game 4 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total |
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Warriors | 20 | 28 | 22 | 26 | 96 |
Bullets | 30 | 22 | 21 | 22 | 95 |
Back at home, the Bullets seemed to be on their way to staving off an unexpected sweep by the underdog Warriors, leading by 14 points early on. Bullets forward Mike Riordan was assigned to guard Barry, who had killed the Bullets in the series up to that point by averaging 35 points a game. Riordan played Barry very physically, arousing the ire of Warriors' coach Al Attles. Midway through the first quarter, Barry went on a drive to the basket and was fouled hard from behind by Riordan. Barry reacted with a shove, but Attles bolted onto the court and initiated a fight of his own with Riordan, thereby protecting his star player from an ejection and getting ejected himself. The remainder of the game was directed by assistant coach Joe Roberts.
The Bullets controlled the game and led most of the way, leading by as many as eight in the fourth quarter at 90-82 after a Riordan drive and layup where he injured his ankle. Bullets coach
Television coverage
CBS broadcast the 1975 NBA Finals in the United States, with Brent Musburger on play-by-play and Oscar Robertson on color commentary. With Rick Barry playing for the Warriors in this series, the recently retired Robertson filled his spot; Barry went on to cover the next six NBA Finals, five of which while still an active player. The 1975 Finals is also the oldest NBA championship series whose TV coverage still exists in its entirety, as do all subsequent Finals (except 1978, which has three of its seven contests missing).
Aftermath
The Washington Bullets would re-appear in the NBA Finals in 1978 and 1979 against the Seattle SuperSonics, with a series win in seven games and a series loss in five games respectively.
The Golden State Warriors won their next championship 40 years later in 2015 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games, ending one of the longest droughts between championships in NBA history.
Team rosters
Golden State Warriors
1974–75 Golden State Warriors roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Washington Bullets
1974–75 Washington Bullets roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- 1975 NBA Playoffs
- 1974-75 NBA season
References
- ^ "The Warriors Were Bulletproof | Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com". vault.si.com. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
- ^ "Legends of Basketball – Where Are They Now?". Archived from the original on November 16, 2006. Retrieved May 4, 2008.
- ^ "Fun facts about the 1975 NBA Finals, the Warriors' last trip to title series | Sports Illustrated". www.si.com. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
- ^ Branch, John (June 5, 2015). "When the Warriors Lost Home-Court Advantage to the Ice Follies". The New York Times.