1977-78 NBA Finals
May 21, 1978 – June 7, 1978
1977-78 NBA Finals result: WBWashington Bullets def. SSSeattle SuperSonics, 4-3, May 21, 1978 – June 7, 1978.
Sourcing caveat: Game 1's exact final score showed minor variance across secondary sources (approximately 106-99 to 106-102); the game-by-game margin narrative and overall 4-3 series result are well-corroborated across Wikipedia and Basketball-Reference.
Result
| Team | Series | |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | WBWashington Bullets | 4-3 |
| Runner-up | SSSeattle SuperSonics |
Games
| Game | Date | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | May 21, 1978 | SSSeattle SuperSonics 106–102 Washington Bullets | Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington |
| Game 2 | May 25, 1978 | WBWashington Bullets 106–98 Seattle SuperSonics | Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland |
| Game 3 | May 28, 1978 | SSSeattle SuperSonics 93–92 Washington Bullets | Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland |
| Game 4 | May 30, 1978 | WBWashington Bullets 120–116 Seattle SuperSonics | Kingdome, Seattle, Washington |
| Game 5 | June 2, 1978 | SSSeattle SuperSonics 98–94 Washington Bullets | Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington |
| Game 6 | June 4, 1978 | WBWashington Bullets 117–82 Seattle SuperSonics | Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland |
| Game 7 | June 7, 1978 | WBWashington Bullets 105–99 Seattle SuperSonics | Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington |
Finals MVP
Wes Unseld. Unseld was named Finals MVP for the champion Bullets, valued for his rebounding, screening, and outlet passing rather than scoring.
Series context
The 1977-78 Finals featured the Washington Bullets, built around Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes and coached by Dick Motta, facing a young Seattle SuperSonics team led by guards Dennis Johnson and Gus Williams under first-year coach Lenny Wilkens, who had taken over midseason. Seattle stole home-court advantage immediately, winning Game 1 in Washington after erasing a big Bullets lead behind a late scoring burst. Washington answered in Game 2, winning 106-98 as Wes Unseld's rebounding and Bob Dandridge's 34 points gave the Bullets their first Finals victory after a string of prior playoff disappointments. Seattle regained the series lead with a tense Game 3 win, keyed by Dennis Johnson's seven blocked shots, but Washington forced overtime heroics to even the series in Game 4, winning 120-116 as Charles Johnson scored several quick baskets in the extra period. Seattle won Game 5, 98-94, behind Fred Brown and Dennis Johnson to move within one win of the title. Facing elimination, Washington delivered a blowout in Game 6, winning 117-82, an eventual record margin, with Motta shifting Dandridge to guard to exploit matchups. In the decisive Game 7 in Seattle, Washington won 105-99 despite Dennis Johnson shooting poorly from the field, with Mitch Kupchak's late three-point play sealing the Bullets' first NBA championship. This was Washington's only title in franchise history and came after years of postseason near-misses, including the 1975 Finals sweep at the hands of Golden State. Unseld's selection as Finals MVP, despite modest scoring averages, reflected the value voters placed on his rebounding, screen-setting, and outlet passing, a rare instance of a non-scorer earning the award. The rematch the following year, in which Seattle avenged the loss, made this pair of Finals one of the most closely contested back-to-back rivalries of the late 1970s. The 1978 Finals were historically unusual in that both teams finished under 50 wins, Washington at 44-38 and Seattle at 47-35, the first time that had happened since the 1958 Finals and the only time it has occurred in a modern 82-game season; Seattle also reached the Finals despite losing Bill Walton's Trail Blazers to injury complications in a prior round rather than facing Portland directly. Game 4, played before an announced crowd of more than 39,000 at the Seattle Kingdome, was at the time a record for a professional basketball game. The series ran an unusually long 18 days from Game 1 to Game 7, and Washington's Game 7 win on the road held up as the last time a visiting team won a Finals Game 7 until Cleveland's 2016 championship. Washington's Game 6 rout, 117-82, set a 35-point Finals margin-of-victory record that stood for two decades until Chicago's 42-point win over Utah in the 1998 Finals. The championship, Washington's only NBA title, was celebrated with a parade through downtown D.C. that drew an estimated crowd of well over 100,000, the city's first major professional sports championship in more than three decades.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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