1973 ABA playoffs

The 1973 ABA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the American Basketball Association's 1972–73 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Division champion Indiana Pacers defeating the Eastern Division champion Kentucky Colonels, four games to three in the 1973 ABA Finals.

Notable events

The teams with the three best records in the ABA that year failed to win the championship. The Carolina Cougars had the league's best record at 57–27, one game ahead of the Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division. The Utah Stars won the Western Division with a record of 55–29, four games ahead of the Indiana Pacers, who won the league championship after posting a regular season record of 51–33.
With the Pacers and Colonels meeting in the playoffs once again, the rivalry, referred to in some circles as the "I-65 Series" heated up once again as they met in the ABA Finals. The Pacers became the first team to win a third ABA championship. The Colonels became the first team to lose two separate ABA championship series. The series also marked the second time in three years that the Colonels lost the ABA finals 4 games to 3; the same happened at the end of the 1971 ABA Playoffs against the Utah Stars.
Two years after the 1973 finals the Colonels and Pacers would meet again at the end of the 1975 ABA Playoffs with the Colonels winning the championship series.
The Pacers' George McGinnis was the Most Valuable Player of the ABA playoffs.

ABA Finals: (E2) Kentucky Colonels vs. (W2) Indiana Pacers

This was the third time that the Pacers and Colonels played each other in a postseason series, having previously played each other in 1969 and 1970. Indiana dominated most of the first half to lead by 14 but the Colonels scored the first 17 points of the second half to take a lead that would change hands several times. A contentious second half saw the Colonels play a chunk of it under protest after a scoring play by Artis Gilmore was disallowed on a three-second violation. With the Pacers trailing 100–97, Roger Brown shot a three-pointer to tie the game with 1:09 left. With seconds to play, Jimmy O'Brien missed a shot and got the rebound to shoot what seemed to be a successful shot with 35 seconds to go that would have made it 102–100 for the Colonels. However, the referees ruled that the 30-second shot clock had expired and gave the ball back to Indiana, with an apparent television replay being reported as showing the first shot having hit the backboard but not the rim. The Kentucky crowd showered the court with debris as fans scuffled with Pacer players after the game ended. At any rate, the game went into overtime that saw the Pacers take the lead late with Freddie Lewis making a driving jump shot to give Indiana a 109–107 lead before recovering a subsequent missed Colonel shot and being fouled that saw him make both shots to close the scoring.
The Colonels dominated the first half with a ten-point lead before Indiana narrowed it to one in under four minutes that saw the two teams trade points until Indiana briefly had the lead 80–79 on a 11–0 run. However, the Colonels took control from there, with Walt Simon making two early baskets to give Kentucky the lead before continuing to build their lead. Artis Gilmore led the game in scoring with 29 points with 11-of-16 shooting while getting 26 rebounds and blocking seven shots while battling a pulled back muscle he re-injured in warmups.
A tough first quarter saw Kentucky lead 17–5 with one successful field goal in the first four minutes for Indiana before the Pacers eventually battled back to be trailing by just four points at halftime. Indiana took control in the third period and even led 65–59 at one point, but Kentucky took control from there and had the lead for most of the fourth quarter. Kentucky led by as much as 12 before Indiana made one last effort to get it to three points with under 90 seconds to play. With a missed shot by Rick Mount, the Pacers tried to get the ball to George McGinnis down two with under 30 seconds to go, but Gilmore stole the ball and got it to his teammate before Mount was fouled with time expiring that saw him finish the game with free throws made to give Kentucky a four-point win. Indiana out-rebounded Kentucky but shot for 31-of-92 while the Colonels made 37-of-85.
Both teams battled a physical game that saw Indiana lead 48–45. Head coach Bobby Leonard was ejected at halftime after receiving his second technical foul when words he spoke to Freddie Lewis were misconstrued by referee Joe Gushue as directed at him. With no assistant coach, Gus Johnson served as the coach for the rest of the game. Kentucky led early in the third period by four, but the Pacers kept up with the Colonels, with multiple lead changes occurring in the third quarter before Indiana took the lead for good on a Don Buse layup to make it 72–70. Indiana never trailed after that, even leading by seven before the Colonels threatened with under five minutes to go to get it to two. Hillman then scored a shot and free throws to give the Pacers a six-point lead again as the Pacers held on to tie the series. Indiana managed to shoot over 40 percent from the field while Kentucky was just 37 percent on 34-of-91; after the game, Leonard called the next couple of games ones to "go to war".
Freddie Lewis scored 28 of his 31 points in the second half as the Pacers took a nine-point lead with under nine minutes to go. But Kentucky stormed back with a 19–5 run that saw them lead 85–80 with under two minutes to go. George McGinnis soon got fouled by Artis Gilmore that saw him make both free throws before Freddie Lewis subsequently got the ball and made it from the three-line. Kentucky got the ball and tried to run it down, but Walt Simon missed his 16-ft shot that saw Indiana rebound it with 0:48 to go. On the inbound play, Lewis tried to get the ball to McGinnis, but the ball went out of bounds with under 30 seconds to play. On the Kentucky inbound, McGinnis would bat the pass away and picked it up for what became a slam dunk to give Indiana a 87–86 lead with 0:23 to play. Jim O'Brien missed a shot for Kentucky that saw Mel Daniels fouled on the rebound. Lewis was then fouled on the inbound play that sent him to the free-throw line that saw him make both with under five seconds to go.
Kentucky took control of the first half for a twelve-point lead that had fans thinking the team would possibly not enjoy the cases of champagne wheeled through the Coliseum for a potential series victory for the Pacers. Once trailing 70–58 in the third, Indiana pulled within two late in the third quarter, but the Colonels dominated from there, turning a 78–76 lead to 88–76 as the Colonels staved off elimination and sent the series back home to Louisville.
After leading by one point at halftime, Indiana pounced on Kentucky's weak third quarter, with George McGinnis scoring 13 of his 27 points in that quarter that the Colonels could not recover from. It was the last game for Gus Johnson, who recorded seven rebounds and played late defense against Artis Gilmore.
Four members of the Pacers eventually made the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame: Gus Johnson, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, and George McGinnis, to go along with head coach Bobby Leonard while the Colonels saw three players inducted in Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore, and Louie Dampier.
In July, the Colonels lost both their general manager and head coach, who each resigned; on July 24, Mullaney promptly signed a contract to coach the Utah Stars. He was replaced by Babe McCarthy.

Statistical leaders

Total leaders

Points

Rebounds

Assists

Minutes