Milwaukee Bucks Sweep Baltimore Bullets In 1971 Nba Finals

By Author: Isaias Langley
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The 1971 NBA Playoffs ended with the Western Conference champion Milwaukee Bucks defeating the Eastern Conference champion Baltimore Bullets in a four game sweep. The Bucks were led by Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson.

Prior to the 1970-71 season, the NBA expanded to 17 teams as the Portland Trail Blazers, Buffalo Braves, and Cleveland Cavaliers joined the league. With the expansion, the league divided into the Eastern and Western Conference for the first time. Each conference had two divisions.

The new Conference structure also led to a change in the playoff format. Each of the four divisions qualified its first- and second-place teams. In the first round, the division champion of each division played the second place team from the other division from the same conference. The two teams from each Conference to come out of the first round would meet in the Conference Finals.

The defending champion New York Knicks won the most games in the Eastern Conference for the 1970-71 regular season. They were pitted against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round and subsequently beat them four ...
... games to one. In the Conference Finals, they played against the Baltimore Bullets. Baltimore would ultimately win a seven-game series to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

The other Conference featured the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers had gone to the Finals in three straight years prior to the 1970-71 season, losing all three. They faced a difficult challenge in their quest to advance to the Finals a fourth straight year in the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks won a league-high 66 games during the regular season. The Lakers won 48 games to win the Pacific Division.

Milwaukee faced the San Francisco Warriors in the first round and LA faced the Chicago Bulls. Milwaukee would easily advance to the Conference Finals after beating San Francisco in five games. The Lakers, on the other hand, needed all seven games to get by Chicago.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Bucks would win their second straight five-game series to end LA's streak of trips to the Finals. Milwaukee and Baltimore would represent their respective conferences in the 1971 NBA Finals.

Milwaukee continued its dominance in the Finals with a four-game sweep to finish off an impressive 12-2 playoff run. Oscar Robertson was dominant in the clincher, scoring 21 of his game-high 30 points in the first half.

The Bucks became the second team to ever sweep the Finals and posted an average margin of victory of 14.5. The Bucks set a record by becoming the fastest expansion team in NBA history to win the championship by winning in their third year. They still hold the record.

The Bucks were led by center Lew Alcindor. Just one year removed from winning Rookie of the Year, Alcindor led the league in scoring at 31.7 points per game and he won the MVP. He had a lot of help in Robertson, though. Robertson was thrilled to finally win a championship in his first full season with Milwaukee after 10 seasons with Cincinnati. He expressed his satisfaction in the locker room following the clinching victory.

This is the first champagne I've ever had, and it tastes mighty sweet, said Robertson. We won the title in high school, but it was soft drinks then. This is the big leagues, man.

AUTHOR:-
Isaias Langley writes reviews on various sporting events including the various online sportsbook. In this piece of write up the author wrote about National Basketball Association games. The author takes the readers opinion on how to do NBA Betting online.