Remembering the 1987 Sonics Season
SEATTLE – For the Sonics, it was a time of transition.
Heading into the 1986-87 season, Jack Sikma, the last member of the Sonics’ 1979 championship team, was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Alton Lister and a pair of first-round picks.
Dealing Sikma signaled the start of a rebuilding process for the Sonics. It was tough to lose a 30-year-old who was already a seven-time all-star and had just finished a season where he averaged more than 17 points per game.
While the Sonics lost Sikma, they drafted a cornerstone of future success (Nate McMillan) in the second round. Seattle entered the season – Bernie Bickerstaff’s second as head coach – with a talented roster featuring Tom Chambers, Dale Ellis, Xavier McDaniel, Lister, and McMillan.
The regular season was in many regards unspectacular. The Sonics amassed a record slightly below .500 (39-43). But, with a slight improvement over the previous season, the Sonics were able to sneak into the postseason after finishing fourth in their division and seventh in the Western Conference. Chambers, McDaniel and Ellis lead the team in scoring, each averaging at least 23 points per game. They remain the only trio in NBA history to each reach that mark over a full season.
What appeared to be a mundane rebuilding project proved to be anything but in the postseason, with the Sonics becoming the answer to a trivia question by the time their run was complete. The 1986-87 team remains the last NBA squad to win a playoff series after finishing the regular season with a losing record.
The Supes didn’t stop after just one series though. The Sonics ended up going all the way to the Western Conference Finals.
Up first were the 2nd-seeded Dallas Mavericks. After splitting the first two games in Texas, the Sonics won a pair of home games to close out the series. Interestingly enough, those games were played at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on the University of Washington campus instead of at the Kingdome or Seattle Coliseum. Why? – the Kingdome and Coliseum were booked for other events.
The first-round win, which featured either Ellis or Chambers scoring more than 30 points in each contest, was improbable for the Sonics, considering the Mavericks won all five regular season matchups against Seattle by an average of 18.5 points. But, improbable was the norm for the Sonics in ‘86-’87.
Next up - Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Chambers and Ellis continued to put on a show against the Rockets, winning the second-round series in six games. The Sonics were boosted by winning Games 1 and 2 in Houston - Game 1 in overtime behind 34 from Dale Ellis. Seattle put the Rockets away for good in Game 6 - a 2OT classic at the Coliseum. Chambers dropped 37 and Ellis added 36 as the Sonics survived Hakeem’s 49-point outburst and advanced to their first conference finals since 1980.
Unfortunately, next up was the Showtime Lakers squad at the height of their powers - Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott A.C. Green, Michael Cooper, and Kurt Rambis. The Sonics played the eventual champs close, losing Game 1 by just 5 and Game 3 by a single point, 122-121, behind a 42-point effort from McDaniel. But, Los Angeles, which won 65 regular-season games that year, eventually swept the Sonics.
The Sonics’ surprise run to the conference finals made their rebuilding effort short-lived. The Sonics would add Derrick McKey the next year and improve their record to 44 wins in 1987-88. In 1988-89, they won 4.
Those of us who were there will never forget the 1987 season. With the last link to the ‘79 team (Sikma) gone, what should have been a transition year became a season to remember. One of the most remarkable playoff runs in NBA history.