CBS Sports: NBA 1975- Washington Wizards @ Buffalo Braves: Bob McAdoo's 50 Points

Source:CBS Sports- The Wizards & Braves in the 1975 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Source:The New Democrat 

"Bob McAdoo puts up one of the best playoffs scoring performances ever. He scores 50 points, despite the fact that the Bullets have a four defender rotation on Big Mac. McAdoo also crashed the boards as he had 10 in the 3rd quarter, I don't know how much he could have had for the whole game. A well-deserved standing ovation from the noisy Buffalo crowd, an out-of-his-mind Oscar Robertson screaming while announcing the game and the series tied at 2-2 after McAdoo's career game. April 18, 1975." 

From Lamar Matic 

Anytime there’s a choice between having the player who scored the most points in a game and the team that scored the most points in a game, especially a playoff game, I would always take the team. 

When one player scores fifty points and his team loses, it generally means he was doing most of the scoring for his team in that game. And that his teammates weren’t doing much damage to the other team. Classic example of Michael Jordan vs. the Boston Celtics in the 1986 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, where he scored sixty points in back-to-back games, but the Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls in both games and beat them badly.

That is how you defended Bob McAdoo when he was with the Buffalo Braves. You guarded him tough and you tried to stop him. But not to the point where it would free up other Braves to beat you with open shots and layups. 

Now it so happens that the Braves won this game and Big Bob was able to put the Braves on his back. But the Bullets won this series, because they had a better team, even if the Braves had the better player in the series. 

Good teams, or in the Bullets case very good teams, if not great teams, generally beat teams that have a great player, if that player doesn’t have a very good supporting cast around him.

Lamar Matic: NBA 1986- Eastern Conference 1st Round Game 1- Washington Wizards @ Philadelphia 76ers: 4th Quarter

Source:Lamar Matic- the Wizards and 76ers from 1986.

Source:The Daily Press 

"One of the greatest NBA comebacks ever. The Washington Bullets are down by 17 with 4 minutes left and seems like have lost the first playoffs game of 1986. However, veteran Dan Roundfield scoring on one end and Charles Barkley with Julius Erving choking on the other lets the Bullets get back in the game and win it with an impossible game winning three by Dudley Bradley. 1986 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs Round 1 Game 1." 

From Lamar Matic 

Definitely one of the most surprising comeback victories of all-time and perhaps the best comeback in Bullets playoff history. 

You come back from eighteen points with four minutes left in the game especially in a playoff game, you are getting a lot of breaks with the team with the lead falling asleep and thinking they’ve already won the game. Which is what the 76ers did, as well as the Bullets never giving up and coming up with a lot of great plays. Especially on defense, but scoring every time they had the ball. 

When you have a big lead like this, all you really have to do is work the clock, don’t turn the ball over and hit your foul shots. You do all of those things and even if the other team scores every time they have the ball, they won’t have enough time to come all the way back. The 76ers failed to even do these basic fundamental things late in this game.

CBS Sports: Moses Malone Feature With Washington Wizards (1987)

Source:CBS Sports- interviewing Wizards center Moses Malone in 1987.

Source:The Daily Press 

"Interview with Moses Malone mid-season after trade to Washington Bullets." 

From NBA Trades

The worst move that Harald Katz ever made running the Philadelphia 76ers (and there might be a David Letterman top 10 list of bad moves that he made running the 76ers) was trading Moses Malone to the Wizards. They were called the Washington Bullets back then, but trading Moses and not getting anything in return with Jeff Ruland who had a bad leg before that trade told 76ers fans and perhaps the rest of the NBA that the 76ers were not only no longer NBA Finals contenders, but they weren’t interested in being contenders. Especially with 1987 being Julius Erving’s last season.

A healthy Moses Malone with the 76ers in 87 and finishing his career there with Charles Barkley and you add a small forward to come after Dr. J and the 76ers would have remained not just a playoff team in the late 1980s and 1990s, but they would have remained a contender for the NBA Finals. 

The 76ers after trading Moses have never been the same since. They were a solid playoff team in 1989, 1990 and 1991, but the fell back and missed the playoffs in 92 and then make another trade with Charles Barkley and we're essentially a last place team for the rest of the 1990s.

And after two great seasons personally that Moses had for the Wizards in 87 and 88, the Wizards make a bad move themselves by not resigning Moses who was 33 at that point and probably had another 3-5 good years left in him. But that’s on Abe Pollin who at least in the 1980s was only interested in making the NBA Playoffs and putting enough people in the seats at the Capital Centre to make a profit for his team. 

The Wizards keep Moses to go along with Jeff Malone and a young and very talented, but undisciplined player in John Williams, Bernard King would have still been there and Wizards would have at least remained a consistent playoff team in the 1990s.

I’ve never figured out how come Moses played for six NBA teams. I mean he is one of the top 4-5 NBA centers of all-time. Maybe only Wilt Chamberlain was a better rebounding center than Moses. Arguably the best center of the 1980s. Certainly in the Eastern Conference and you could argue about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Moses for the NBA as a whole. And yet the team he played the most games with was the Houston Rockets which was for six seasons. Even though he’s known as the great low-post player both offensively and defensively and the great rebounder and for bringing another NBA championship to the 76ers.

Ginoong Kamote: 'Vintage NBA - Wes Unseld'

Source:Ginoong Kamote- The Wizards playing the Seattle Sonics in either the 1978 or 1979 NBA Finals.

"Wes Unseld  is an American former basketball player. He spent his entire NBA career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988." 

From Ginoong Kamote

Not many big man made more of an impact on basketball without being a high scorer than Wes Unseld. The man is in the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame as well as he should be, being one of the best center/power forwards of all time. Yet he averaged only around ten points a game for his entire career. 

When you think of great NBA big man, you are talking about guys generally who average around twenty points a game or more, like Moses Malone, Patrick Ewing and many others. But with Wes, he made such a huge impact, with his rebounding, consistently getting his team the ball back or second opportunities to score, setting up his teammates to score with his passing and setting screens so his teammates could get easy scores. 

With Wes's defense, his guy for the most part not being a huge impact on the game because Wes would consistently stop him and Wes could also score when his team needed him to do as well. Not many other big man made as much of an impact on the game as Wes Unseld, without being big scorers. Guys like Bill Russell and Dennis Rodman come to mind, who are both in the Hall of Fame.

Wes Unseld played power forward and center in the 1970s a time when 6'9 was short for a center and yet he was 6'7 consistently having to cover player who were 4-6 inches taller then him like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who as far as I'm concern is the greatest center of all time. But Wes had a lot of intelligence and a lot of bulk, sort of like a taller version of Charles Barkley who at most was 6'5, but height per height perhaps the best all around rebounder of all time, 

Wes knew what he had to work with and made the most out of it and then some. Which is why he's one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

KY Hoops TV: NBA 1985- Washington Wizards @ Chicago Bulls: Highlights

Source:KY Hoops TV- The Bullets vs Da Bulls (as they're called in Chicago) in 1984.

"Chicago Bulls vs Washington Bullets on October 26th, 1984 in Chicago, IL at Chicago Stadium. Michael would have a solid game, in his NBA Debut he would score 16 points on 5-16 shooting & 6-7 from the Free Trow line. The Bulls won, 109-94." 

From KY Hoops TV

Just on a personal note first: you might recognize the voice of the game analyst if you watch this video. Wes Unseld who I believe is the best all around player in Washington Wizards history, did color commentary for the Bullets (as they were called back then) before he became general manager and head coach of the franchise in the late 1980s. 

As far as this game and matchup, I think about what if. You look at the Wizards starting lineup with Frank Johnson and Jeff Malone, and Cliff Robinson, Rick Mahorn, and Jeff Ruland up front, or maybe you put Greg Ballard at the small forward and Cliff Robinson at the power forward and you bring Mahorn off the bench as your 1st big man, that's a very good Wizards team in the mid 1980s, if they keep everyone healthy. 

It wasn't just mismanagement for the steep decline that the Wizards went through in the 1980s when they went from a team that was an annual NBA Championship contender in the 1970s, to a team where a good season was making the playoffs and going out in the 1st round. They had some bad luck as well, with Frank Johnson breaking his foot and Jeff Ruland breaking his knee. And those two players never really make it back at all. Johnson was an excellent two-way point guard and Ruland was one of the best centers in the NBA in the early and mid 1980s. 

And then you look at Chicago Bulls from 1984-85 and you could ask yourself how good would they have been in the 1980s, before they're winning all of those NBA Finals in the 1990s, if they could've kept Orlando Woolridge and Steve Johnson healthy, Michael Jordan doesn't break his foot in 1986. That's a pretty good threesome to start out with. They had Charles Oakley in 1985, and Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant two years later. Maybe Michael Jordan is not averaging 35-40 points a game with that supporting cast.