1982–83 Portland Trail Blazers season

The 1982–83 Portland Trail Blazers season was the 13th season of the Portland Trail Blazers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Blazers finished 46–36, a four-game improvement from the previous season.

In the 1983 NBA Playoffs, the Blazers won their first playoff series since their championship season of 1976–77, defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in their first-round best-of-three series in a two-game sweep and gaining a measure of revenge for the Sonics' having eliminated them from the postseason in 1978 and 1980.

However, the Blazers were bested in their Western Conference semi-final series against the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one, on the Lakers' way to the 1983 NBA Finals.

The 1982–83 NBA season saw the beginning of an unprecedented playoff streak for the Blazers, as they would go on to qualify for 21 consecutive postseasons. The second longest NBA playoff streak behind the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers who made the playoffs every year from 1950 to 1971, and the San Antonio Spurs who made the playoffs every year from 1998 to 2019.

Draft picks

Note: This is not a complete list; only the first two rounds are covered, as well as any other picks by the franchise who played at least one NBA game.

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

Game log

Playoffs

|- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 1 | April 20 | @ Seattle | W 108–97 | Thompson, Paxson (25) | Calvin Natt (11) | Mychal Thompson (8) | Kingdome<br>9,211 | 1–0 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 2 | April 22 | Seattle | W 105–96 | Jim Paxson (26) | Mychal Thompson (12) | Thompson, Lever (6) | Memorial Coliseum<br>12,666 | 2–0 |-

|- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 | April 24 | @ Los Angeles | L 97–118 | Mychal Thompson (22) | Thompson, Natt (9) | three players tied (7) | The Forum<br>13,891 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 2 | April 26 | @ Los Angeles | L 106–112 | Calvin Natt (26) | Wayne Cooper (7) | Darnell Valentine (15) | The Forum<br>16,239 | 0–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 3 | April 29 | Los Angeles | L 109–115 (OT) | Paxson, Natt (22) | Natt, Cooper (10) | Darnell Valentine (14) | Memorial Coliseum<br>12,666 | 0–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 4 | May 1 | Los Angeles | W 108–95 | Jim Paxson (20) | Calvin Natt (10) | Darnell Valentine (11) | Memorial Coliseum<br>12,666 | 1–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 5 | May 3 | @ Los Angeles | L 108–116 | Jim Paxson (32) | Calvin Natt (11) | Darnell Valentine (8) | The Forum<br>16,739 | 1–4 |-

Awards and honors

• Jim Paxson, NBA All-Star

References