1977 Championship
In the 1976–77 campaign, the Blazers posted their first winning record, going 49-33 under the leadership of Ramsay. The team—Walton at center, Lucas and Lloyd Neal at forward, and Dave Twardzik and Lionel Hollins at guard—made the playoffs for the first time. The Blazers won the NBA championship in their first time in the playoffs. After defeating the Chicago Bulls (who were a Western Conference team at the time) and the Denver Nuggets (a surviving ABA team) in the early rounds, the Blazers defeated the favored Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in four straight games. They then went on to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 4–2 for the championship.
The next season the team raced off to a 50–10 record. However, at that point a rash of injuries set in (most notably to Walton, who would struggle with injuries his entire professional career), and the team finished the season with a 58–24 record. They failed to make it back to the Finals, losing to Seattle (the eventual Western Conference champion) in the conference semis.
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