The Pistons made a major move in the off-season, trading perennial All-Star Dave Bing to the Washington Bullets for NBA assist leader Kevin Porter. Porter would only play 19 games for the Pistons in 1975-76, missing the bulk of the season with an injury. Bing represented Washington at the 1976 NBA All-Star Game, honored as the game MVP. The team also made a move at mid-season, firing coach Ray Scott. Greg Eno from Out of Bounds described his January dismissal, "Thirty years ago and a month, Scott was conducting practice -- the Pistons were in a terrible slump at the time -- and management strode onto the court, relieved Ray Scott of his silver whistle, and marched him off the court to give him the Ziggy -- that Detroit word for a coach getting fired. The Pistons hadn't yet learned to act with class in 1976. They were still a bush league franchise, even though Bing and Scott and Lanier had combined to put pro basketball on the map in Detroit. So the firing of Scott -- in front of his stunned players -- in January 1976 was done with all the subtlety of July 4th fireworks."[2] He was replaced by assistant Herb Brown.[3]
The Pistons finished with a 36-46 (.439) record, 2nd place in the Midwest Division. The team was led by forward Curtis Rowe (16.0 ppg, 8.7 apg, NBA All-Star) and center Bob Lanier (21.3 ppg, 11.7 rpg).[4] Detroit advanced to the 1976 NBA Playoffs, winning 10 of their 11 final games, and then won their first round series of the Western Conference playoffs 2-1 over the Milwaukee Bucks, the team's first playoff series win since the 1961-62 Detroit Pistons season. Detroit won the deciding 3rd game of the series in Milwaukee 107-104, securing the win with a late Chris Ford steal. The team then fell to the Golden State Warriors 4-2 in the Western Conference Semi-Finals, dropping the 6th game in overtime 118-116 at Cobo Arena in Detroit. [5]