Portland had joined the league in 1970 and it was making its playoff debut in its seventh season as the third best team in the Western Conference (49–33).
The Portland Trail Blazers franchise entered the NBA as an expansion team in 1970, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Buffalo Braves.
The Trail Blazers missed the playoffs the next two seasons as Walton struggled with injuries, but continued to add key pieces, such as Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal, Lionel Hollins, and Maurice Lucas.
In 1976, Jack Ramsay was hired as head coach, and with a fully healthy Walton, Portland made the playoffs for the first time in the 1976–77 season, winning 49 games.
The Philadelphia 76ers made it back to the playoffs in 1976, after missing the previous four years, which included a league-worst nine wins in the 1972–73 season.
In the middle of the fray, Maurice Lucas, in an act of team unity and in support of Gross, slapped Dawkins from behind and challenged him.
This brawl is commonly looked upon as the turning point in this series, as the Blazers unified and showed the Sixers that they wouldn't be humiliated.
The turning point came early in the fourth with the score 91–87, when Walton tipped in an alley-oop pass from Bob Gross over Darryl Dawkins, who knocked him to the floor.
Dave Twardzik then stole the Sixers' ensuing inbounds pass and found Walton, who was back on his feet, for another alley-oop dunk.
Philadelphia attempted to use George McGinnis and Caldwell Jones on the inside for Game 4, but Walton had other ideas, going on a shot-blocking frenzy.
Maurice Lucas later said of Walton's post-game thrown jersey that was sent into the rushing crowd of fans, "if I had caught the shirt, I would have eaten it.
ET) on Sunday morning, because CBS wanted to accommodate a golf telecast of the Kemper Open[2]—such scheduling had been used in the 1976 NBA Finals, for Game 3 played in Phoenix.
The only known footage of the trophy presentation was of Blazers head coach Jack Ramsay voicing his opinion about Bill Walton's performance in the NBA Finals.