Warriors can wash away bad taste for disappointment of 1976

They entered the postseason with the best record in the NBA. They boast the league’s deadliest shooter, but also can play stifling defense. They are cohesive and exciting, and they would seem to be a notch better than any of the other three teams remaining in the semifinal round of the playoffs.

But before you start planning the parade route for the 2015 Warriors - Chinatown? Jack London Square? Lake Merritt? - you should note that the preceding paragraph also aptly described the 1976 Warriors, the last Golden State team, before this year, to be hailed as the favorite heading into the playoffs.

Don’t bother scanning the rafters of Oracle Arena for the 1976 championship banner. That team, coached by Al Attles and featuring future Basketball Hall of Famers Rick Barry and Jamaal Wilkes, did not bring home a title. Thirty-nine years ago, the Warriors were upset in the Western Conference final by the Phoenix Suns, a team that had finished the regular season 42-40.

“We felt like we were gonna get our second championship,” said Clifford Ray, the Warriors’ starting center in 1976. “We thought we had enough firepower, enough personnel to get it done, and we fell short. So of course it was devastating. I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

Expectations were even higher in ’76 than they are now, because those Warriors were defending champions. A year earlier, they had surprised everyone by knocking off the Washington Bullets for the NBA title, still the franchise’s only championship since it moved to the Bay Area in 1962.

With the core of the 1975 team back, there was every reason to believe Golden State could repeat. And the regular season offered no rebuttal. The Warriors went 59-23, winning the Pacific Division by 16 games. Not that there weren’t signs of discontent.

“Coming off a championship season, you have a lot more distractions,” Wilkes said. “And there can be different types of distractions, but it’s always a challenge managing that. And guys always have their own agendas. So that’s a constant. I don’t think we had anything significantly out of whack. It’s like a family. There’s always some dysfunction, it’s just a question of how much.”

Still, even when the 36-46 Detroit Pistons extended Golden State to six games in the Western Conference semifinals, there was little cause for alarm. Like the 2015 Warriors getting tested by the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round, they seemed to regroup.

The Phoenix series would prove to be maddening for the ’76 Warriors, though.

There’s no question the Suns were better than their pedestrian record. After losing 18 of 23 games heading into the All-Star break, they traded for veteran forward Garfield Heard, and he gave them an immediate boost. With young point guard Paul Westphal and rookie center Alvan Adams, the Suns certainly had some talent.

The Warriors romped in Game 1 at Oakland and led 2-1 after three games. Then all of the things that had carried the team to the championship the year before - hustle, smarts, unselfishness - abandoned them.

“I think we were a better team and we gave the series away,” Barry said by phone. “And give Phoenix credit, they were able take advantage of it.”

Game 4 was a turning point. The Warriors had the ball and a 111-110 lead with nine seconds to go. But after Adams fouled Golden State forward Derrek Dickey away from the ball, Dickey missed one of his two free throws. And with two seconds on the clock, former Warrior Keith Erickson tied the game with a 20-foot jump shot. The Suns eventually won 133-129 in double overtime.

Barry vividly remembers the foul on Dickey, noting that the rule was changed to avoid such tactics; Today, the Warriors would get one foul shot (by anyone on the court at the time) and the ball. He also remembers the moment before that inbound play, when he was dribbling upcourt.

“And we called time out,” Barry said. “I would have had the ball if we didn’t call time out, and they would have had to foul me. After the timeout, they came up with their philosophy: Let’s foul off the ball.”

Dickey was actually a solid free throw shooter (78.5 percent that season), but the underhand-tossing Barry was among the NBA’s best at 92.3 percent.

The Warriors bounced back to win Game 5 for a 3-2 lead, but Game 6 was another gut punch. Adams hit a layup with 12 seconds left for a 105-104 lead, and Heard blocked Wilkes’ baseline jumper with two seconds remaining.

“Look at this,” Attles said after the game, slapping the stat sheet. Look at the offensive rebounds. It’s the same old bugaboo that has been bothering us the whole series.”

The Suns had 20 offensive boards that game, the Warriors seven. In the regular season, Golden State had ranked second in the NBA in rebounding; Phoenix was dead last. And yet the Suns would outrebound the Warriors 336-328 in the series.

It was another indication of the listlessness that had overtaken Attles’ team. Though it still mystifies most of those players, they all agree that the chemistry began to go south 10 days after the Warriors won the championship in 1975, when they sent point guard Butch Beard to Cleveland as the “future consideration” in a previous trade.

Beard had provided stability in the backcourt, and he worked well with Barry. In his absence, rookie Gus Williams played heavy minutes at point guard for the Warriors.

“We should never have gotten rid of Butch Beard,” Barry said. “You shouldn’t screw around with what’s working. He was not a big name but he was very smart. And we could have brought Gus along slowly.”

The Warriors came home for Game 7 and built a 10-point second-quarter lead in front of a typically enthusiastic crowd at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, as it was then called. But the magic wasn’t there. The Suns pulled away in the fourth quarter and won 94-86.

There would be no repeat. The Boston Celtics would down Phoenix in six games in the NBA Finals.

In the visitors’ locker room after Game 7, the Suns sounded almost shocked at the Warriors’ poor effort.

“I noticed in our two straight wins the Warriors lacked the fire that made them so unbeatable,” Adams said, as reported in the Oakland Tribune. “I don’t think they coasted. They just didn’t look like the same team that beat the Bullets last year. … That surprised me - seeing the Warriors die without even a fight at the finish.”

Throughout the series, there had been mild grumbling and finger pointing among the Warriors. The lingering issue from Game 7 was the team’s inability to get the ball into Barry’s hands. The guy who had led Golden State with 21 points per game in 1976, and had averaged a robust 30.6 the previous year, had taken just one shot in the third quarter, and not a lot more in the fourth.

“Words can’t describe how disappointed I was,” Barry said this week. “I look back and say I should have been the SOB everyone thought I was, and demanded the basketball.”

After back-to-back trips to the West final, and with just two players (Barry and reserve Jeff Mullins) older than 27, the Warriors looked built for an extended run of success. It didn’t happen. The team’s record declined each of the next four seasons, ending with an 18-43 mark under Attles in 1980. By then, only Phil Smith and Ray remained from the ’76 roster.

The Warriors never again finished in first place in their division or advanced to the conference finals – until this year.

“Look, we represent the Bay Area,” Ray said, referring the 1975 championship team. “Until these young fellas get it done, we represent the Bay Area. You can’t take that away. No matter who they talk about, Run TMC and all that, we’re the last to win it.”

And yet those old Warriors see worthy descendants in this year’s team. In fact, they note a strong resemblance in the freewheeling, hot-shooting Dubs of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The old guys also point out a big difference between the 1976 and 2015 squads.

“I think it’s a difficult comparison because this Warrior group hasn’t gone through it all already,” Wilkes said. “They seem to have that burn to want to get there, as we did (in 1975). … I just think it’s a different flavor. We had climbed the mountain, and we were hearing how great we are all summer.”

Ray finds kindred spirits in Steve Kerr’s Warriors, too. And he likes their chances against Houston, and beyond.

“It’s very easy to look at that basketball team and feel like they can get it done this year,” Ray said. “And I sure hope they do. It shouldn’t take 40 years to win another championship.”

Phil Barber can be reached at phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @Skinny_Post.