1980 NBA Finals - Series Summary - Game 5

Game 5

Back at the Forum, the Lakers held a two-point lead late in the third quarter when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stepped on Lionel Hollins' foot as he was running upcourt after a Laker basket and twisted his ankle. At that point, Kareem had scored 26 points and was carrying the Lakers, but now he was in the locker room. Magic Johnson then asserted himself by scoring six points and added an assist as Los Angeles moved up by eight at the end of the third.

Abdul-Jabbar then limped back onto the floor. His appearance aroused the Forum regulars and, despite the bad ankle, scored 11 points and had two key blocked shots down the stretch. The Sixers, however, had Julius Erving who scored 11 of the Sixers last 13 points to complete an 8 point comeback, and tie the game at 103-103 with only 43 seconds remaining.

On the Lakers possession, Darryl Dawkins was trying to front Abdul-Jabbar but to no avail as Magic threw a pass overhead so only Erving stood between Kareem and the basket. Abdul-Jabbar, bad ankle and all, dunked emphatically over Erving and drew the foul with 33 seconds left. He converted the 3-point play to take a 106-103 lead.

After a timeout, the Sixers put the ball in Erving's hands who tried a spectacular, scooping finger-roll, but missed. Magic got the rebound to seemingly seal the win, but the Lakers tried to force the fast-break and ended up turning the ball over, out-of-bounds. However, the Sixers turned the ball right back over by stepping out of bounds on a desperation 3-point attempt. Norm Nixon would finally seal the game at the foul line by making both of his foul shots. The victory gave the Lakers the crucial 3-2 series lead heading back to Philadelphia.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 14 point 4th quarter on a bad ankle capped an overall 40 point performance. After Game 5 Abdul-Jabbar was averaging 33.4 points per game as compared to eventual MVP Magic Johnson's 17.4.