Seattle lost Marvin Webster to the New York Knicks but acquired Lonnie Shelton in exchange.
In the playoffs, Seattle defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 4–1 and the Phoenix Suns 4–3, while Washington had a much tougher road, eliminating the Atlanta Hawks in an unexpectedly tough seven-game series and coming back from a 3–1 deficit to eliminate the San Antonio Spurs in seven.
The teams split the four-game series in the regular season: [1] The Bullets controlled the game and led by 18 in the fourth, but Seattle mounted a furious comeback to tie it at 97.
Outside of the two metropolitan areas of the competing teams, as well as Baltimore and Portland, the game was shown on tape delay beginning at 11:35 Eastern and Pacific/10:35 p.m. Central and Mountain.
Four of the six games in the championship series two years later were shown on tape delay outside of the markets of the competing clubs.
[3] The Sonics won a close one in OT 114–112, staving off a late Bullets comeback behind 36 points by Gus Williams and 32 by Dennis Johnson.
[4] Back home, Elvin Hayes had a hot first half, scoring 20, but injuries to starting guards Tom Henderson, Kevin Grevey and prolonged poor shooting by their replacements took their toll.