Sixers playoff flashback: Portland Trail Blazers show real fight in turning 1977 NBA Finals around

With the NBA playoffs on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, here are some memorable 76ers playoff games dating to when they moved from Syracuse before the 1963-64 season. Is your favorite missing? Send feedback to Marc Narducci at mnarducci@inquirer.com.

Fifth of 12 parts.

This was a strange game in which the winning team ended up losing in the long run. These were two brawling teams, where one ejected player became so frustrated that he overturned a toilet. Another player ended up needing four stitches after he got punched -- by a teammate.

This wasn’t a conventional game, especially toward the end when the outcome had all but been decided.

The 76ers won this game, 107-89, to take a lead of two games-to-none over the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1977 NBA Finals.

The game, which was played May 26 at the Spectrum, had the home fans in a good mood and then a fighting mood toward the end of the fourth quarter.

The Sixers were leading, 96-76, with just under five minutes left when Sixers center Darryl Dawkins and Trail Blazers forward Bob Gross were battling for a rebound. On the way down, they both had possession. The force of Dawkins threw both players hard to the floor.

Gross got up and appeared to be going toward Dawkins, but other players intervened, and everything momentarily appeared over. Then suddenly, Dawkins went after Gross and threw a left hook that connected -- with the face of Sixers teammate Doug Collins, near an eye.

After throwing that punch, Dawkins kept running. Trail Blazers enforcer Maurice Lucas pushed Dawkins from behind in the head. At that point, Dawkins and Lucas squared off in pugilistic stances. Some punches were thrown but none connected.

Fans started coming onto the court and police officers attempted to restore order.

The game was delayed 10 minutes.

Dawkins and Lucas were ejected.

Collins, who scored a game-high 27 points, needed four stitches after taking the shot from Dawkins. The Sixers need a new lavatory after Dawkins, in a fit of anger, pulled a toilet out of the wall.

“He was ripping counters, and washstands, and tore the locker room apart,” Pat Williams, the team’s general manager at the time, said in a recent interview. “I remember him saying he didn’t feel his teammates came to his defense.”

Even though the Sixers won the game, the fight seemed to invigorate the Trail Blazers. They won the next four games to claim the first and still only NBA championship in franchise history.

“I believed it changed the series,” Sixers guard World B. Free said in a recent interview.

But the Sixers won the game. How did the fight change things?

“When we had that fight, their team took on another whole image,” said Free, who now holds the title of ambassador of 76ers basketball. “It wasn’t the same team we saw the first two games. They got a little cockiness when they walked on the court for that third game.”

Portland, under former Sixers and St. Joseph’s coach Jack Ramsay, won Games 3 and 4 by 22 and 32 points. The Blazers then won Game 5 in Philadelphia, 110-104, and wrapped up the series with a 109-107 victory in Game 6 in Portland.

Sonny Hill, working on the CBS broadcast team, agreed with Free about the altercation.

“That incident definitely changed the series,” Hill recalled recently. “What happened is that it took away the [Sixers’] intimidation factor.”

It’s hard to fathom that any team with Lucas would be intimidated. Listed at 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds, he was considered one of the toughest players in NBA history.

“You didn’t want to fight Maurice Lucas, he was a tough dude from the inner city of Pittsburgh,” Williams said. “He was the ultimate power forward.”

Lucas was more than just a tough guy. He was a four-time NBA All-Star, and also earned one All-Star berth in the ABA. That 1976-77 season was his first in Portland after he was acquired in the ABA dispersal draft.

During the six-game series against the Sixers, Lucas was Portland’s leading scorer, averaging 19.7 points. He also averaged 10.7 rebounds.

His biggest contribution was throwing his weight -- and fists -- around.

“They had a chip on their shoulders after that game,” Free said.

Portland also had Bill Walton, who averaged 18.5 points and 19 rebounds and was named the Finals MVP.

“Big Red was leading the surge,” Free said of Walton.

Yet, it was Lucas who got the Trail Blazers back on track.

“Maurice Lucas had it all. He could hit that pull-up shot, hit that little jump shot, he could pass, he was what you called a typical power forward at that time,” Free said.

With an emphasis on power.

One other note on the fight -- this was Free’s first game back after missing the previous four. During Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against Houston, Free banged into Mike Newlin going for a loose ball and ended up with three broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

When the fight broke out against Portland, Free’s first instinct was to join the fray.

“I remember sitting on the bench and I had my ribs and collapsed lung, and I jumped up off that bench as soon as I saw it happen,” Free said. “My mom almost blew a gasket. She was in the stands and knowing if somebody would have poked me, I would have been seriously hurt.”

He wisely didn’t jump in.

The fight obscured some good performances that night from the Sixers. Besides Collins’ 27 points, Julius Erving scored 20, Henry Bibby added 15 points and 11 assists, and Caldwell Jones contributed 10 points and 14 rebounds. Dawkins had five blocks and five rebounds in just 16 minutes.

It’s a game that should have given the Sixers momentum, but it was ripped away by Maurice Lucas.

One postscript of the series via Free: After the Sixers lost Game 6, Free said Erving got the players together in the locker room and suggested they go over to shake hands with the Trail Blazers.

“I looked at Doc and said, ‘Shake hands? I will go over there and fight,’ ” Free said.

Free didn’t go over and maybe it was better. Maurice Lucas was in that locker room.