Sixers playoff flashback: Magic Johnson’s 1980 NBA Finals performance for the ages

With the NBA playoffs on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, here are some memorable 76ers playoff games dating to when they moved from Syracuse before the 1963-64 season. Is your favorite missing? Send feedback to Marc Narducci at mnarducci@inquirer.com.

Fourth of 12 parts.

This was where the legend of Magic Johnson really began to take off.

No Kareem, no problem for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 76ers needed a win over the Lakers to force a Game 7 in the 1980 NBA Finals and their chances seemed to have been increased significantly when league MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar suffered an ankle injury during Game 5 in Los Angeles. Abdul-Jabbar had a dominant series, averaging 33.4 points and 13.6 rebounds in the first five games.

Trailing three games to two, the Sixers headed to the Spectrum with plenty of confidence for Game 6 on May 16, 1980.

“There was no pressure on the Lakers,” then-Sixers coach Billy Cunningham in a recent interview. “Abdul-Jabbar sprained his ankle and nobody expected them to win and the pressure was taken off their shoulder. They could play free and loose.”

While the Sixers didn’t have to deal with Abdul-Jabbar, they had no answer for Johnson, who began the game at center and was seen at all different positions that game. A year after leading Michigan State to the NCAA title, he guided the Lakers to a 123-107 win over the Sixers in the clinching Game 6.

A point guard by trade, Johnson became a point center in that game and he finished with 42 points, 15 rebounds, and seven assists.

“That was Magic at his greatest.”

“That was one of the great individual performances of all time,” said Philadelphia basketball legend Sonny Hill, who broadcast that game for Westwood One radio. “They didn’t have Kareem, Magic was a rookie, and he took over.”

While Johnson deservedly received all the acclaim, Jamaal Wilkes, in most cases, would have earned top billing. Wilkes killed the Sixers with corkscrew corner jumpers and finished with 37 points, hitting 16 of 30 from the field and all five foul shots.

“Wilkes had the worst shot and you probably thought it was going to miss and it would just go in,” Sixers forward Bobby Jones said recently. “It is a lesson: Don’t judge a person by the way they shoot, judge them by a percentage of what they make. He made quite a few of them.”

To show where the NBA game was at that stage, the Lakers attempted only two three-point field goals, missing both.

Wilkes scored 25 of his points in the second half.

"Jamaal Wilkes is really the one who created the separation between the two teams,” Hill said.

The Sixers were within two points with about five minutes left before Johnson took over, scoring nine points to secure the win.

In the ’80s, it was often common for a player to play 40 minutes a game, especially in the playoffs. All five Lakers starters played 39 or more minutes. The other three starters were Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper, and Jim Chones.

Nixon, who averaged 15.5 points in the series, had a rare off-game, scoring four points and shooting just 1-for-10 from the field. He did have nine assists.

Johnson played 47 minutes, hitting 14 of 23 shots from the field and all 14 of his free throws. The Sixers simply couldn’t stop him penetrating to the basket nor could they contain Wilkes inside or outside.

“They just stepped up to another level that we could not match or did not match,” Jones said.

The difference in this game was getting to the foul line and converting. The Lakers shot 33-for-35 from the foul line (.943) while the Sixers were just 13-for-22 (.591). The Sixers shot better from the field (.528) than the Lakers (.489).

Julius Erving led the Sixers with 27 points. He was 13-for-23 from the field, but just 1-for-4 from the foul line.

Even though the Sixers shot well from the field, they didn’t have a consistent perimeter threat and missed all six three-point attempts.

“If you look at the film, the Sixers were disjointed and they didn’t have a go-to person from the outside,” Hill recalled. “When they won their championship [in 1983] they had a guy like Andrew Toney who could really stretch defenses.”

Johnson was named the Finals MVP, the first of three he would win in his career. In the series, he averaged 21.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 2.7 steals in 42.7 minutes per game. During his career, he played on five Lakers NBA title teams.

This was a highly anticipated Finals because neither team faced much resistance leading up to the championship series. The Sixers, who were seeded No. 3 in the Eastern Conference, swept the Washington Bullets, two games to none, in the opening round and then had 4-1 series wins over the No. 2 Atlanta Hawks and No. 1 Boston Celtics.

The Lakers were the top seed in the Western Conference and after a first-round bye, scored 4-1 series wins over the Phoenix Suns and then the Seattle SuperSonics.

While it is inconceivable to think of today, this game wasn’t even televised live. CBS showed the game on tape delay at 11:30 p.m. That means the fans who were part of the Spectrum sellout crowd of 18,276 were the only ones who could see it live.

Needless to say, Pat Williams, the general manager of the Sixers at the time, didn’t rush home to watch the tape-delayed broadcast.

“It was too hard and I had no interest in watching it and I still don’t today,” Williams said in a recent interview. “That was Magic at his greatest.”