January 12 victory over the Capital Bullets gave them their first winning record since their 6–5 start. McAdoo, who would go on to finish second in the NBA Most Valuable Player Award balloting, represented the team in the January 15, 1974 NBA All-Star Game. By the end of the month the Braves had fallen back to a 26–29 record. February–March On February 1, the Braves traded Kunnert and Wohl to the Rockets for Goukas and Marin. The team then went 10–5 in February. On February 27, the Braves earned their first victory over the Boston Celtics after 22 defeats. By late February, the team had the top scoring offense in the league. They clinched their first playoff experience in a victory at a home game held at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens against the Portland Trail Blazers as McAdoo again had 28 rebounds as well as 29 points. The clinching game on March 10 was the Braves 74th game. The team reached five games over .500 three times following their 40th, 41st and 42nd wins but lost the last three games of a five-game western road trip to conclude the season at 42–40. The team made the playoffs by finishing in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division. Season standings Record vs. opponents Season schedule |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 1|| October 9 ||Houston Rockets ||107–105 (OT)||1–0||Win 1 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 2|| October 12 ||@ Boston Celtics ||112–118||1–1||Loss 1 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 3|| October 13 ||Los Angeles Lakers ||122–125||1–2||Loss 2 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 4|| October 16 ||@ New York Knicks ||91–117||1–3||Loss 3 |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 5|| October 20 ||Philadelphia 76ers ||116–110||2–3||Win 1 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 6|| October 24 ||@ Milwaukee Bucks ||113–130||2–4||Loss 1 |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 7|| October 26 ||Cleveland Cavaliers (at Toronto, Canada) ||104–97||3–4||Win 1 |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 8|| October 27 ||@ Cleveland Cavaliers ||111–101||4–4||Win 2 |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 9|| October 28 ||@ Kansas City-Omaha Kings ||112–100||5–4||Win 3 |- bgcolor="bbffbb" | 10|| October 30 ||Seattle SuperSonics ||105–103||6–4||Win 4 |- |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 11|| November 2 ||@ Chicago Bulls ||97–107||6–5||Loss 1 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 12|| November 3 ||Golden State Warriors ||121–124 (OT)||6–6||Loss 2 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 13|| November 4 ||Chicago Bulls (at Toronto, Canada) ||95–101 (OT)||6–7||Loss 3 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 14|| November 7 ||@ Seattle SuperSonics ||113–130||6–8||Loss 4 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 15|| November 9 ||@ Portland Trail Blazers ||108–122||6–9||Loss 5 |- bgcolor="ffcccc" | 16|| November 10 ||@ Golden State Warriors ||105–128||6–10||Loss 6 |- bgcolor="bbffbb"