The 1977 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1976–77 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers played against the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers, with the 76ers holding home-court advantage. Their four regular season meetings had been split evenly, 2–2, with neither side winning away from home. The series was played under a best-of-seven format.

The 1976–77 NBA season started with the ABA–NBA merger. Portland had benefited from the resulting ABA dispersal draft as they acquired Spirits of St. Louis power forward Maurice Lucas to partner with Bill Walton, and Philadelphia had signed ABA All-Star and 3-time ABA MVP Julius "Dr. J" Erving, who had taken the New York Nets to the ABA title the previous year. In the 1977 NBA Finals, five of the ten starting players were former ABA players (Julius Erving, Caldwell Jones, George McGinnis, Dave Twardzik, and Maurice Lucas).^[1]

While it was no surprise that Philadelphia had made it to the championship series, having posted the best record in the Eastern Conference (50-32), Portland's appearance in the finals was a mild surprise. Portland had joined the league in 1970 and it was making its playoff debut in its seventh season as the third best team in the Western Conference (49-33). It was also making its Finals debut after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four close games in the Western Conference Finals to make this the second straight NBA Finals with at least one team making their first Finals appearance.

The series started 2-0 in favor of Philadelphia, but Portland rebounded in the next four games to become the second team to overcome a 2-0 deficit to win the Finals since the Boston Celtics in 1969 and the first to do so with four straight wins. No team would accomplish the feat again until 2006.

Background

The Portland Trail Blazers franchise entered the NBA as an expansion team in 1970, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Buffalo Braves. Like most expansion teams, the Trail Blazers struggled, but in 1974, hope was on the way.

Superstar center Bill Walton, who led UCLA to an 86-4 record and two national titles in three years, was drafted first overall by the Trail Blazers in the 1974 NBA draft. The Trail Blazers missed the playoffs the next two seasons as Walton struggled with injuries, but continued to add key pieces, such as Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal, Lionel Hollins, and Maurice Lucas. In 1976, Jack Ramsay was hired as head coach, and with a fully healthy Walton, Portland made the playoffs for the first time in the 1976–77 season, winning 49 games. The 3rd seeded Blazers would defeat the Chicago Bulls in three games, the Denver Nuggets in six games, and then shockingly swept league MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals.

The Philadelphia 76ers made it back to the playoffs in 1976, after missing the previous four years, which included a league-worst nine wins in the 1972–73 season. They acquired former ABA All-Star Julius Erving, late of the New York Nets, in the offseason. The 76ers won 50 games for the first time since 1969, defeated the defending champion Boston Celtics in a tough seven-game series, then advanced to the finals for the first time since 1967 by ousting the Houston Rockets in six games.

Road to the Finals

Regular season series

Both teams split the four-game series, each won by the home team.

Team rosters