Summary
The NBA underwent a minor realignment as the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the Clippers. They also moved into the Pacific Division and were replaced by the defending champion Washington Bullets in the Atlantic Division. To keep the conferences balanced at 11 teams each, the Detroit Pistons moved from the Midwest Division of the Western Conference into the Central Division of the Eastern.
The Bullets led the league with 54 wins and the Seattle Supersonics, who had lost to the Bullets in the previous season's championship finals, were right behind them with 52 victories.
Both teams faced major challenges in the conference finals. The San Antonio Spurs, led by league scoring champion George Gervin, took a 3-1 lead in the East, but the Bullets evened the series with wins at home and at San Antonio and then squeaked through at home, 107-105.
In the West, Seattle won the first two games against Phoenix at home but then lost the next three. The Supersonics pulled out a 106-105 at Phoenix and also won the seventh game at home, 114-110.
That set up a rematch of the 1978 finalists. The Bullets were pretty much the same team, led by center Wes Unseld's rebounding and pick-setting for scoring forwards Elvin Hayes and Bob Dandrige.
The Sonics had lost 7-1 center Marvin "the Human Eraser" Webster to free agency. Coach Lenny Wilkens moved Jack Sikma from forward to replace Webster and installed Lonnie Shelton in Sikma's old spot. The team's strength was its backcourt, where Dennis Johnson and Gus Williams were the starters and "Downtown" Fred Brown came off the bench to hit from outside.
The Bullets won the first game at home, but they blew an 18-point lead in the process, winning 99-97 on two free throws by Larry Wright with no time left on the clock.
It was all Seattle after that. They won the next four games in a row. The key was a 114-112 overtime win at Washington the fourth game. The Sonics closed it out with a 97-93 home victory, in which Brown hit 4 of 5 shots in the last 13 minutes.
Dennis Johnson had been the goat in 1978, missing all 14 of his shots in Game 7. A year later, he was the series MVP. Johnson played tough defense, blocked shots, got rebounds, scored, and handed out assists. He and Williams contributed more than half of Seattle's points during the final series.
