Was there ANY point during any of the Bulls' 6 Finals series where..

[kamil]

1998. I still have newspaper clippings from that series where the media was saying the Bulls were the underdogs.

MJ had other plans.

[L.A. Jazz]

1998

Both games in Utah, with Utah up in game 6 late and Scottie Pippen barely able to play.

during game 6 the Bulls looked like they were done. Rodman tried everything against Malone but Antoine Carr looked like a Malone twin and the bulls had no second Rodman. a great game with a terrible end for the Jazz.

[mehyaM24]

Do you mean 1987-1989 KAJ or KAJ when he was old but still elite? If you mean post-elite KAJ I think the Bulls would still win. The Lakers were not great that year. The Blazers had the league's best record and were expected to make the Finals. They did so in the previous year and then started the following year 19-1. A lot of championship teams back then, and this is still true although to a lesser degree today (since teams can make progress more quickly via free agency versus having to do so gradually via the draft and small trades), had come close before finally winning. Portland and Chicago were two teams that fit that bill in 1991.

yup. old, but still elite kareem, via 87-89.

i think the bulls STILL beat the lakers without kareem and healthy scott/worthy in 7 games.

with kareem those years? not a chance. cap is the GOAT bigman.

[Soundwave]

The teams that scared me during the Bulls run were

The '93 Knicks

The '93 Suns (mega hype as the team of destiny and all that BS)

The '95 Magic.

The '96 Magic.

The '98 Pacers.

The '98 Jazz.

'92 Blazers was kinda iffy. Everyone and their grandma was trying to push that narrative that Clyde was basically as good as Jordan and was going to show it in the Finals. That pretty much went out the window before half time of game 1

Winning in that threepeat year is always f*cking hard, there's a reason why so many teams fail at it.

[mehyaM24]

The Bulls were the favorites in every Knicks series except 94'

^someone that watched 90s ball. with their CORE still intact, from 91-on, they were favored in every series they played in. '98 was shaky for the bulls because pippen played on a bad back, but going into the playoffs, they were very much favored.

[SamuraiSWISH]

The teams that scared me during the Bulls run were

The '93 Knicks

The '93 Suns (mega hype as the team of destiny and all that BS)

The '95 Magic.

The '96 Magic.

The '98 Pacers.

The '98 Jazz.

Co-sign.

I was more frightened by the '98 Jazz because of how they unexpectedly gave us a fight in 1997. If MJ doesn't take over in Utah w/ the Flu / Food Poisoning we lose that game. I was nervous.

We decimated the '98 Jazz prior to game 5 taking things easy, and before Pippen's injury. Things only got real for me in that series during game 6 when Pippen was nonexistent.

'92 Blazers was kinda iffy. Everyone and their grandma was trying to push that narrative that Clyde was basically as good as Jordan and was going to show it in the Finals. That pretty much went out the window before half time of game 1

35 in 15 minutes on him? Out shooting the 3 ball that Clyde spoke, and considered himself better at? Missing half the second quarter putting up 6x 3's in a half in a total blow out? Yea. MJ squashed that lunacy within the first half.

Winning in that threepeat year is always f*cking hard, there's a reason why so many teams fail at it.

Yup. It requires things beyond the physical (LeBron) or skill (Kobe) to accomplish.

[Soundwave]

Knicks had a lot of hype in '93. When they went up 2-0 in the series, everyone wrote Chicago off.

To be honest I thought that was it too, I remember coming back from the grocery store with my parents and watching tail end of the '93 ECF thinking "well ... that's it, guess there won't be a threepeat".

People started to hype a Knicks-Suns Finals.

[Stringer Bell]

Even in 95' a lot of people thought the Bulls would beat the Magic. After all, the Bulls had closed the season 21-6 and were 13-4 with MJ. They were comparable to the Magic in terms of record for the final third of the season. Plus there was the "GOAT gonna GOAT" factor. The Bulls in the previous year with Horace Grant were one phantom foul call away from the ECF and, as most observers felt, the Finals. So you lose Grant but add the GOAT (MJ had 32/7/5 on 48% in the 95' playoffs--better numbers than in any of the subsequent 3 playoff runs) it was logical to assume the team would perform better in the playoffs. A lot of people made that assumption.

Their problem was they got demolished on the boards since they lacked a PF to rebound. If they played the Pacers in the ECSF they likely would have won. Orlando just matched up well with Chicago and had the personnel in Shaq and ironically Grant himself to badly expose the Bulls' lack of a rebounder or interior defender. This is why the Bulls were desperate enough to gamble on the then-toxic Rodman the following year.

I agree.

Much is made of Jordan being rusty from baseball, and not enough about their weakness at the 4 spot. Grant provided rebounding and interior defense. You didn't get that from Kukoc. You got offense from him.

Jordan shot poorly during the 17 games of the regular season, but he picked it up during the postseason. People often forget how athletic and explosive Jordan still was in the 95' playoffs.

He is said to have not been in "basketball shape" as he fatigued in games. That might have been true, but he also didn't have an extra 65 regular season games on his legs. He fatigued in other games in future postseasons. It happens, especially when you are in your mid 30s.

Jordan made some key turnovers late in games 1 and 6. It definitely cost them game 1. With a solid player at the 4 spot, perhaps the games wouldn't have been so close that they were in that position, or maybe Jordan could conserve a bit of energy.

[GODbe]

Team was way too stacked for that. Sure, maybe some of the media called them the "underdogs" but that's only so Jordan would be far more overrated when they won.

[mehyaM24]

1998
during game 6 the Bulls looked like they were done. Rodman tried everything against Malone but Antoine Carr looked like a Malone twin and the bulls had no second Rodman. a great game with a terrible end for the Jazz.

absolutely. i think the bulls would have taken care of utah pretty quick had pippen played healthy. for the first 4 games or so, pippen was actually the favorite for FMVP. his defense in that series was THAT good.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/6...VP.html?pg=all

[Soundwave]

I still can't believe the '98 Finals game 6.

Sooooooooooo damn delicious.



I literally couldn't even write it any better. To finish that third threepeat like that, I couldn't ask for anything better.

My favorite thing about it is there's that famous shot of Jordan about to hit the game winning shot and if you look in the background, you will see like 98% of Utah fans in the background, but you'll see this ONE typical looking Chicago dude with his son on his shoulders who has this giant goofy smile on his face, as if he knows exactly what's coming.

So funny.

[mehyaM24]

some great perspective to the 98 finals:

But if Pippen's defensive performance in Game 3 didn't convince you that he's worthy of being named MVP of the Finals, then what he did on both ends of the court in the Bulls' 86-82 Game 4 victory should have clinched the vote.

Pippen impressed Jerry Sloan.

"He was sensational," said the Jazz's coach.

After scoring just 10 points in Sunday's record-setting shellacking, Pippen was even more efficient offensively than Jordan Wednesday at the United Center. He scored 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting overall and went five-for-eight from beyond the arc. Jordan needed 27 shots from the floor and 15 from the free-throw line to get his total.

Pippen, who is much healthier now than he was a year ago in the Finals, carried the Bulls' offensive yolk for much of the first half. In the first quarter, he scored six of the Bull's first eight points by swishing two 3-pointers. He also crashed the glass early on, grabbing three offensive rebounds in the first three minutes. At one point, Pippen had three offensive boards while the Jazz were still waiting for their first rebound to fall in their hands.

He ended the first quarter and opened the second with a personal 8-0 run by nailing a trey, hitting an inside shot and then drilling another 3-pointer to give Chicago a 26-19 lead. Bryon Russell interrupted his scoring exhibition with a three, but Pippen kissed a banker off the glass on the Bulls' next possession. That concluded his one-man shooting show.

At that point, with 9:32 left in the second quarter, Pippen had scored 16 points and grabbed four rebounds - and he threw in one steal for good measure.

"He did a terrific job getting in the open court, pulling up and taking the 3-point shots, and got in a great rhythm," Sloan said. "We had a difficult time trying to guard him."

And that was just half the court.

"Defensively, he puts tremendous pressure on you. . . . He caused us a lot of problems, I think everybody is aware of that. We're aware of it," Sloan said. "We have trouble with him every time we play. And I don't know what more you can say. You can put him on any player on the floor, and he's going to do a terrific job defensively."

That versatility amazes ESPN basketball expert Dr. Jack Ramsay, a longtime coach in the NBA. Ramsay ranks Pippen among the outstanding defenders in the history of the game. Right there with K.C. Jones, Mel Hutchins, Satch Sanders and so on.

"I can't conjure up anybody who does all the things that Pippen does as a defender. I mean, he can defend anybody," Ramsay said. "We've seen him defend point guards and take them out of their game, two guards and deny them a shot, small forwards, big forwards. The only player that I haven't seen him defend well is the opposing center. I think he'd have a hard time with Shaq."

But the Jazz obviously don't have Shaq. And, for that matter, they don't have a dominating player right now - not even Malone, in part because of the suffocating defensive pressure the gangly, athletic 6-foot-7 Pippen and his teammates have been applying.

"Scottie has done a lot in terms of relieving some of the pressure off of me," said Jordan. "Defensively, he's the key component for us. He's a recovery. And we give him the authority to do whatever he wants on the defensive end . . . He can disrupt anybody's offense, really. And tonight was a great example of that."

pippen taking the bull by the horns

[Stringer Bell]

its more than just stats. perkins also shot 40% in the finals, missing key looks from magic. vlade's defense was very poor and basically let BOTH jordan and pippen waltz in the lane AT WILL (also remember hearing a radio broadcast from stu lantz and chick hearn, via youtube, where they criticied vlade's defense saying he wasn't playing any).

unlike most people here, ive watched the series. neither of them could replace the chemistry and intangibles kareem provided.

4/5 of the games in the 91 finals were close. a healthy scott/worthy(missed each a game) and 88 - 89 kareem would be great.

It would have been interesting. Kareem took a big drop from the 86/87 season to 87/88, and then 88/89. He did still made some big plays in 88', particularly making those two FTs in game 6 after the controversial foul on Laimbeer. That showed the confidence they had in Kareem to go to him in that situation despite him having an awful shooting game.

I still think we missed out on a potential classic finals in 89' due to injuries. While on one end, it seemed like it may have been that "this is the Pistons' year" feel to it, the Lakers were on fire on their 3-peat quest and went 11-0 in the WC playoffs.

Apparently, going into the finals, Riley held practices that was basically a short mini-camp, and they were so intense and grueling that their bodies couldn't take it and led to key injuries. Obviously they weren't gonna win it without Magic, and yet games 2 and 3 still went down to the wire.

Just to add, 3 out of the 5 games in 91' were close. Games 1, 3 (OT), and 5. Games 2 and 4 turned into routs in the 3rd quarter.

[Soundwave]

You can see the Chicago guy clutching his son to the left of MJ, I think they're literally the only Bulls fans in the shot, but he's got this giant hopeful look on his face and all the other fans look like they're about to get shot.

I love the Utah fans that know what's coming too. So good.

[JohnnySic]

Many thought the Suns would win in '93.

Also, some had Portland in '92. That lasted all of one half.