Tough to Reach Top, Easy to Fall in the NBA : Lakers and Celtics Are the Exceptions as Teams Scramble for Playoff Berths

Five years ago, the Philadelphia 76ers won 65 regular-season games and rolled through the NBA playoffs, losing only once on their way to a championship.

With a nucleus of Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Andrew Toney and Maurice Cheeks, the 76ers appeared to be set for several seasons to come.

In 1988, however, a combination of age, injury, retirement and bad decisions has left the 76ers scrambling for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“It was impossible for them to keep the same level of success,” said former Philadelphia General Manager Pat Williams, currently president and general manager of the NBA expansion team in Orlando, Fla. “They had no way to go but down and they’ll probably go lower before they bounce back.”

Two years after the championship, Toney first experienced the foot problems that have plagued him for three seasons. After the 1985-86 season, Malone was traded to Washington for Jeff Ruland, who managed to play in only five games before his career was ended by a serious knee injury.

Last year, Erving retired, leaving an aging Cheeks as the only significant remnant of the championship team.

The 76ers were unable to escape the ebbs and flows common to NBA teams.

Even though the Boston Celtics have averaged 61 wins a year for the last eight seasons and are again a leading contender for the NBA title, they went through 32- and 29-victory seasons in the late 1970s before acquiring Larry Bird.

This season will mark the 12th straight winning campaign for the Lakers, who have a good chance to become the first NBA champions to repeat since the Celtics of 1969.

But the Celtics and Lakers are exceptions to the rule.

“It’s tough to do and that’s why it’s so remarkable that Boston and Los Angeles have been able to maintain their supremacy,” said current Philadelphia General Manager John Nash.

The Celtics and Lakers have both benefitted from excellent players, good decisions and more than a little luck.

Other franchises have not been so fortunate.

The 76ers, for example, could not have known that Ruland’s knees were so bad his career would soon be finished.

The New Jersey Nets took Dennis Hopson with the fourth pick in last year’s draft and he has been disappointing this season. The Nets remain a bad team and will get another high draft pick this year as they continue to try to rebuild.

“The system is designed to help the teams at the bottom,” Nash said. “If you make the wrong decision, you’re likely to be at the bottom again and get another chance.”

Ralph Sampson never proved to be the franchise player he was expected to be for Houston, was traded to Golden State this year and an injury ended his season early.

“None of us has perfect vision,” Williams said. “Often, you’re dependent on the decisions you make. All you can do is gather the evidence to the best of your ability, make a decision and go with it.”

The 76ers are only one example of a franchise in decline.

The Milwaukee Bucks won seven straight division titles before falling to third place behind younger Detroit and Atlanta clubs last season. And they are in the same spot this year.

Phoenix, which won 53 games in 1983, fell to .500 one season later, then dropped precipitously amid drug allegations and the Suns recently made wholesale personnel changes.

“They’ve stripped it down to the bone,” Williams said. “They have to start over and rebuild totally and that’s what they are doing. They’re building a new team and it will take time.”

It may have been a fluke that Golden State, which had seven losing seasons in an eight-year period, went 42-40 last season to make the playoffs because the Warriors have dropped back to the bottom this year.

As teams fall, however, others rise.

The Chicago Bulls, thanks to the drafting of Michael Jordan and the acquisition of a supporting cast, are on the way up.

So are teams like Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle and Portland. Williams evaluates all four teams in similar terms--”a young club that’s coming together and will continue to get better.”

The Hawks, who won only 34 games in 1984-85, followed with two 50-win seasons and could do it again this year.

Detroit, which did not make the playoffs from 1978 to 1983, lost in the Eastern finals in seven games to Boston last year and is battling Atlanta for the Central Division title this season.

Seattle won only 31 games and missed the playoffs for two years but reached the Western Conference championship series in 1987.

Portland, which fell to 40-42 in 1986, earned 49 wins last season and could surpass that this year.

The jury is still out on the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers although both have enough young players that they should continue to improve.

There is no secret to success in the NBA--talent. And the best talent usually goes to the teams picking earliest in the NBA draft.

“As you lose people to age or injury or retirement, you’re meant to sink,” Williams said. “As you sink lower and get one of the top 10 draft picks, you have a chance to get a dominant player. But to do that, you have to fall to the bottom to start over again.”

Nash would like to think the 76ers won’t have to go that far down since Philadelphia figures to have a potential lottery pick this season.

Philadelphia has the option on either its or Washington’s No. 1 pick and that would be a lottery choice unless both teams make the playoffs, an unlikely event.

The 76ers still defend the trade of Malone, but the injury to Ruland forced the team to trade Tim McCormick and Roy Hinson this year to New Jersey for center Mike Gminski and forward Ben Coleman, disrupting whatever chemistry had developed.

“Obviously, bad decisions hurt you,” Nash said. “If you make a bad decision in regard to personnel, it takes you a while to recover. But sometimes no decision is as costly as a bad decision.”