Summary
Two new teams, the Charlottle Hornets and Miami Heat, entered the NBA as the first half of a four-team expansion. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic would enter a year later.
Above all, though, this season marked the changing of the guard in the NBA. Not to mention the forward and the center.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar announced it would be his final season after playing for six NBA champions and winning six MVP awards. Naturally, he hoped his Lakers would win their third in a row, giving him six titles to carry into retirement.
But the Lakers showed signs of slowing down a bit, as the Celtics had the year before. They were the best team in the Western Conference, with 57 wins, but the Detroit Pistons led the NBA with 63 and four other teams in their Central Division finished above .500. In the Atlantic Division, the Celtics slipped all the way into third place, behind the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers.
The Lakers seemed primed for the playoffs, winning all 11 games to reach the finals. Detroit swept Boston and Milwaukee before coming up against Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls for the Eastern championship. Jordan had led the NBA in scoring for the third year in a row and the Bulls had eliminated the Knicks in the semi-finals. They won the first game, at Detroit, and took a 2-1 lead, but the Pistons then won three in a row, holding Chicago under 90 points in two of the games.
The championship series was anti-climactic. Byron Scott, the Lakers' top scorer, was out with a torn hamstring, MVP Magic Johnson suffered a severe hamstring pull in Game 2, and the Pistons swept the defending champion Lakers.
Coach Chuck Daly had built a unusual champion in Detroit. The Pistons got most of their scoring from guards Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas and backup Vinnie Johnson, while their front line of Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, and Dennis Rodman focused primarily on defense and rebounds. Midway through the season, they also acquired forward Mark Aguirre to provide offense off the bench. In their 17 playoff games, Detroit held the opposition below 100 points 15 times and below 90 points six times.
