What followed was another first.Īfter defeating the Chicago Bulls and the Denver Nuggets in the early rounds of the playoff, the Blazers swept the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the Western Conference Finals. Supported by forward Lloyd Neal and guards Dave Twardzik and Lionel Hollins, the Blazers’ towering duo led the team to its first ever winning record (49-33) and its first ever playoff appearance. Lucas also averaged double-double over the season, with 20.2 points and 11.4 boards per game. He finished the regular season with 18.6 points, 14.4 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, leading the league in the last two categories. After struggling with foot injuries for his first two years in Portland, Walton was now playing at an All-Star level, rapidly developing into the best rebounder and defensive center in the league.

As the 1976-1977 season went on, the Blazers evolved from a Cinderella team to a championship contender.

In his first season with the Blazers, Lucas joined forces with Bill Walton, the team’s coveted number one overall draft pick from 1974, and Jack Ramsay, whom the Blazers hired as their head coach just before the start of the season. In the dispersal draft, with their 14th pick, the Trail Blazers selected Maurice Lucas, a proficient power forward with rebounding prowess and exceptional defending abilities. As a result, several ABA teams were dissolved and their players were distributed among the remaining NBA teams. But then, in 1976, the ABA merged with the NBA. Predictably, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs in its first six seasons, winning just 170 games out of almost 500 during this period. In other words, get ready for some NBA history! The glorious 1976-1977 seasonĪlongside the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Clippers, the Portland Trail Blazers entered the NBA as a feeble expansion team in 1970. Truth be told, the last one would have probably been forgotten by everybody but a few thousand teary-eyed “blazermaniacs” had it not been vividly documented by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam in “The Breaks of the Game,” one of the best sports books ever written. The 1979-80 NBA season was historic for three reasons: the inauguration of the three-point line, the debuts of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and the demise of the ideal Portland Trail Blazers team.

Breaks of the game