1977–78 Washington Bullets season

The Bullets got off to a slow start as they lost 6 of their first 10 games. On January 13, the Bullets beat the defending Champion Portland Trail Blazers to improve to 24-15. ^[1] Injuries would begin to have an effect on the team as the Bullets struggled, as they would lose 13 of their next 18 games. Hovering around .500 the rest of the season, the Bullets managed to make the playoffs. The Bullets finished the 77-78 season with a 44-38 record. ^[1]

Offseason

NBA Draft

Pick	Player	Nationality	NBA Team	College/HS/Club Team
4	Greg Ballard (SF)	United States	Washington Bullets	Oregon

Roster

Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Reserve	Inactive
C	Wes Unseld		Joe Pace
PF	Elvin Hayes	Mitch Kupchak
SF	Bob Dandridge	Greg Ballard
SG	Kevin Grevey	Charles Johnson	Phil Walker
PG	Tom Henderson	Larry Wright	Phil Chenier

Regular season

Season standings

^[2]

Season Schedule

Player stats

Note: GP= Games played; REB= Rebounds; AST= Assists; STL = Steals; BLK = Blocks; PTS = Points; AVG = Average

Postseason

As the playoffs began, the Bullets began to get healthy. They started to play solid basketball at the right time as they swept the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. In the second round, the Bullets stunned the Central Division champion San Antonio Spurs in 6 games. ^[1] Game 6 started out oddly as Spurs guard Mike Gale was forced to a wear an inside out Bullets uniform after losing his uniform at the airport. ^[1] In the 3rd period the Spurs would make a run and take a 62-61 lead when the lights went out at the Cap Centre. When the lights came back on the Bullets would come out shooting on the way to a 103-100 win. ^[1] In the Eastern Finals, the Bullets took a 3-1 series lead against the defending Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers. The Bullets lost Game 5 on the road and returned home to play Game 6. In the closing seconds, Wes Unseld would rebound a shot of his own miss to give the Bullets a dramatic 101-99 victory.

NBA Finals

After being swept in their previous trip to the NBA Finals, the Bullets lost Game 1 on the road against the Seattle SuperSonics, and a 19-point lead vanished in the process. ^[1] In Game 4, the Bullets rose to the occasion beating the Sonics 120-116 to even the series at 2 games apiece. After losing Game 5 in Seattle, the Bullets kept their hopes alive with a dominating 117-82 win at the Capital Centre. ^[1] Game 7 returned to Seattle and the Bullets were a heavy underdog. Kevin Grevey suffered a sprained wrist above his shooting hand, and Bob Dandridge was forced to see some action at guard. Dandridge would play strongly and scored 19 points to tie with Charles Johnson, who hit a half court shot at the end of the 3rd quarter, for the team high. Wes Unseld scored 15 points while pulling down 9 rebounds as the Bullets emerged with a 105-99 victory to win their first NBA Championship. ^[1]

Awards and honors

• Wes Unseld, NBA Finals MVP

References

• Bullets on Basketball Reference

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