1978 Denver Nuggets: The Opportunity That Slipped Away
The 1978 Denver Nuggets were coming off a year where they had proved they belonged. One of several franchises from the old American Basketball Association (ABA) that merged with the NBA for 1977, the Nuggets had won a division title and produced one of the league’s electric stars in David Thompson. 1978 produced more excitement—winning basketball, a legendary individual race involving Thompson and continued status as a contender. But it also contained a significant missed opportunity in the postseason.
A YOUNG TEAM WITH BIG AMBITIONS
Thompson continued to light up scoreboards across the league. His 27ppg had him in the race for the scoring title all the way to a memorable final day of the season, and he finished third in the MVP voting. The athletic two-guard also chipped in on the boards and in moving the ball, with five rebounds and five assists per game.
Dan Issel anchored the low post, averaging 21 points/10 rebounds a night. Bobby Jones, one of the great defensive forwards of all time, averaged a 15/8 line. And as the year wore on, 22-year-old Anthony Roberts began making an increasingly bigger impact on the team’s rebounding efforts.
Bob Wilkerson was a smart, tough defender in the backcourt, and he added an 11/6/5 line. Brian Taylor was the point guard, adding 12ppg and four assists on a per-game basis.
Denver was balanced. They were well-coached, by Larry Brown. And they were young, with all the rotation players above still in their 20s.
A ROLLER-COASTER BEGINNING
The Nuggets had an eventful 5-5 start. Their wins included beating the defending champion Portland Trail Blazers, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers. It also included some losses to lesser teams.
Then they settled in and ripped off seven straight wins. The win streak was capped on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at this year’s eventual champion, the Washington Bullets. Issel took advantage of the absence of Bullet center Elvin Hayes from the lineup to score 26 points. Thompson knocked down 24, and Jones played great all-around basketball with 18 points/15 rebounds. The Nuggets left the nation’s capital with a 119-114 win.
After losing three of four, Denver hosted the Seattle SuperSonics (today’s Oklahoma City Thunder). While the Nuggets would see much more of the Sonics before this year was over, Seattle was off to a brutal start. Issel dropped 20 points/10 rebounds, Denver outshot the Sonics from the floor 55% to 44% and rolled to a 115-99 win.
With everything seemingly settled in, the Nuggets suddenly went into reverse gear and dropped five straight, including rematches with the Bullets and Sonics. An early part of the season that had seen almost everything had Denver sitting with an 18-13 record on Christmas.
The race in the old Midwest Division was tight. The Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks, both Western Conference teams prior to 1981, were right there with the Nuggets in a three-way race. The playoff format of this era had just six teams per conference qualifying, and the division winners received byes into the conference semifinals. There was a lot to play for.
TAKING CONTROL
Denver hummed with a little more consistency coming out of Christmas. Starting on the 26th, they tore off ten straight wins. They went into Washington in the early days of January and got another win against the future champs. In this one, in spite of being outshot from the floor, the Nugget defense forced 25 turnovers and escaped with a 101-100 win.
They had to hop a plane and be in San Antonio the very next night. The Spurs, an Eastern Conference team before the geographic flips of 1981, had their own elite scorer in George Gervin, who would battle Thompson down to the wire for the scoring title.
In this game, Gervin got the better of Thompson—36 points to 18—but Thompson’s team got the better of Gervin’s. The Nuggets held the Spurs to 43 percent from the floor and outworked them on the glass. The final was 119-114.
They returned home to a city that was on a high. On New Year’s Day, the NFL Broncos had beaten John Madden’s Oakland Raiders in the AFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl for the first time. The Nuggets hosted the Bulls on the Sunday in between those two football games. Defense and depth delivered. Denver held Chicago to 44 percent from the floor and enjoyed a decisive 41-14 edge in bench scoring. The Nuggets won 109-104.
January was a decisive month for Denver’s regular season outcome. They got control of the Midwest Division, moving out to a 4 ½ game lead on Chicago and 6 ½ on Milwaukee. The top seed in the West was beyond the Nuggets’ grasp, as they stood nine games in the rearview mirror of Bill Walton’s Trail Blazers. But Denver was comfortably on its way to a first-round bye.
CHASING THE BLAZERS
February was a little more uneven, but it was highlighted by a February 12 visit to Portland. The Blazers were the ones who ousted the Nuggets in the previous year’s conference semis, and they were the team to beat this season. On a Sunday afternoon, Thompson and Issel both struggled. That should have been the end of it. But Thompson worked the defensive end and came up with five steals. Denver shut down everyone on Portland except Walton. Jones was steady with 13 points/12 rebounds. And the Nuggets stole a 103-101 win. It wasn’t going to change the playoff bracket position. But it sent a message that Denver could win at a place they likely would need to get through in the spring.
By month’s end, Denver was 39-23, six games clear in the division, and all but settled in as the 2-seed in the West. On the final day of February, something happened that changed everything.
Bill Walton left Portland’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers with a foot injury and would miss the rest of the regular season. While he would return for the playoffs, a season that seemed like a Blazer coronation party was now up for grabs—and the Nuggets poised to a prime beneficiary.
THE GREAT SCORING RACE
With little to play for, Denver put it on cruise control for the balance of the regular season and finished 48-34. The main source of excitement was Thompson’s duel with Gervin for the scoring title.
On the regular season’s final day, the Nuggets were playing an afternoon game in Detroit, while the Spurs would play at night. Thompson needed to make up 15 points. And he certainly did everything he could to make that possible, dropping 73 on the Pistons.
He put Gervin in a position of needing 58 that evening in New Orleans. Gervin did it, scoring 63. Thompson had come up short, but his afternoon electricity created one of the NBA’s most memorable individual showdowns.
Now it was time for the playoffs.
SURVIVING MILWAUKEE
Denver took its bye and then watched as the upstart Milwaukee Bucks, the 6-seed, upset a 49-win Phoenix Suns team in the best-of-three “mini-series.” The Nuggets and Bucks would meet in the conference semifinals.
Neither team shot the ball well in a foul-laden series opener, but Denver outscored Milwaukee at the free throw line 33-21. Thompson scored 27, while Issel put together a 22 points/12 rebounds/5 assists line. The Nuggets won 119-103
They completed the process of holding serve at home with a 127-111 win in Game 2. After spotting the Bucks a three-point lead after a quarter, Denver took over and had the game blown open after three periods. Thompson, Issel, and Jones all hit for 20-plus points.
Perhaps lacking a sense of urgency, the Nugget defense effectively took the night off on the road in Game 3, allowing 66 percent shooting and being on the wrong end of a 149-112 rout.
But they responded with a vengeance in Game 4. Thompson poured in 34, Issel delivered 24 points/14 rebounds. The Nuggets were up by 29 after three quarters and won 118-104. They came home with a chance to clinch in Game 5 and led by eight after three quarters. This series was all but over.
Or was it? Denver gave away the fifth game down the stretch and had to go back on the road for Game 6. They were crushed on the boards by a Bucks team that had new life, quickly fell behind, and lost 119-91.
A series that had been well in hand was now coming down to a Game 7 in the Rocky Mountains.
In the decisive game, the Nuggets were outshot 48% to 43%. But they made up for it with renewed vigor on the glass. Issel, Jones, and Wilkerson all went double-digit rebounds. Roberts scored 26. And Thompson met the moment, going off for 37 points with the season on the line. Denver led by 14 after three quarters, again watched it tighten, but this time finished off a 116-110 win.
They were on their way to the Western Conference Finals. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Walton’s efforts to come back from injury didn’t work out. Portland lost to the Seattle SuperSonics. Denver had homecourt advantage. It was there for them to take.
THE MISSED MOMENT
Seattle had gone through a bizarre season. They lost 17 of their first 22 games before making a coaching change. A young team was able to find its footing and the Sonics were deep and balanced. Gus Williams, Fred Brown, and Dennis Johnson comprised a backcourt that could score and defend. Marvin Webster and Jack Sikma gave them a good frontline. The Sonics had 47 wins, only one behind the Nuggets to begin with, and they were hot.
Denver was ready defensively in Game 1, holding Seattle to 36 percent shooting and winning 116-107. But the series got away from them. They lost Game 2, giving up homecourt advantage and never got it back. The Nuggets lost both middle games on the road, and ultimately lost the series in six games, with Thompson shooting just 43 percent.
There was a lot of good in this 1978 Denver Nuggets season. A second straight strong year solidified their belonging in the NBA after the merger, and they had created memorable moments with Thompson.
But it’s hard not to see the missed opportunity as the bigger story. They were the most direct beneficiary of Portland’s fall and didn’t capitalize. Two years later, Magic Johnson was in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers were dominant, and the path would not be this clear. It took until the 2023 championship season, with Nikola Jokic for this franchise to finally reach the NBA Finals. 1978 had been their best chance prior to that.