MJ dropping 50 on Bird and the Celtics

[sportjames23]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJpE1QRegis

Good thing for Bird he never faced MJ in the playoffs after 1987. Almost happened again in 1991, but Detroit beat Boston that year. I was torn--I wanted to beat Detroit bad that season, but woulda loved MJ getting another crack at the Celtics when he finally had a real team. Damn shame the Bulls couldn't have played both Detroit and Boston that year.

[3ball]

[CelticBaller]

the only reason he scored so much because he traveled all over the place!

Wilt back from the grave

[Lord Bean]

[SHAQisGOAT]

I remember as a kid, watching on TV Jordan just wrecking havoc against the Celtics around those years; he did it many times


Don't really see the need for all the hate there though
Oh, and Bird was just a shell of his former self (due to injuries/surgeries) after 1988; while the Celtics didn't have a team to really compete all the way after 1986, when Walton "went down" for the final time, Wedman retired, McHale played through a broken foot, so on and so forth...

I can also be a prick and say 'good thing for Jordan he wasn't facing peak Bird and prime Celtics of the 80's (along with prime/healthy: bad boys Pistons, showtime Lakers, Moncrief's Bucks...) when he was winning all those titles in the weak 90's', while posting stuff like this:

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=146170

Because Bird started succumbing to injuries beginning with the 88-89 season, we have 4 informative seasons (from 84-85 to 87-88) and 2 playoffs encounters (86 and 87) to use in this H2H comparison.

84-85 Season:

11/15/84-

Jordan: 27/2/2 (12/24. 3/3)

Bird: 14/17/3 (6/17, 2/2)

Celtics win.

12/22/84-

Jordan: 32/12/8 (12/18, 8/8)

Bird: 10/7/4 (3/14, 4/4) - injured; McHale and Johnson DNP

Bulls win.

1/9/85-

Jordan: 36/6/6 (12/24, 12/13)

Bird: 28/11/4/3/3 (9/21, 10/10)

Celtics win.

2/5/85-

Jordan: 41/12/7 (14/25, 13/14)

Bird: 27/9/7 (9/21, 8/8)

Celtics win.

2/22/85-

Jordan: 26/4/7 (8/18, 10/12)

Bird: 34/8/5 (16/28, 0/0)

Celtics win.

3/6/85-

Jordan: 33/7/3 (13/28, 7/7)

Bird: 25/9/10 (11/24, 2/2)

Bulls win.

Cumulative Stats-

Jordan: 32.5/7.2/5.5 (52%)
Bird: 23.0/10.2/5.5 (44%)

In his rookie season Jordan actually had his best performances compared to Larry and really played well.

85-86 Season:

3/21/86-

Jordan: 20/2/1 (7/16, 6/7) - in 16 min

Bird: 32/6/8 (11/18, 8/8)

Celtics win.

In 85-86, MJ missed 5/6 of the regular season games against Boston due to injury and the one that he played it was off the bench with limited minutes.

85-86 Playoffs:

Game 1-

Jordan: 49/4/2 (18/36, 13/15)
Bird: 30/6/8 (9/13, 10/13)

Game 2-

Jordan: 63/5/6 (22/41, 19/21)
Bird: 36/12/8 (14/27, 6/7)

Game 3-

Jordan: 19/10/9 (8/18, 2/3)
Bird: 19/6/8 (5/13, 9/10)

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 28.3/8.0/8.0 (53%)
Jordan: 43.7/6.3/5.7 (50.5%)

Celtics win 3-0.

Jordan put up better numbers and had that legendary 63 point Game 2 in a 2OT loss. Funny enough, no one mentions Game 3 in Chicago where Jordan choked, scoring only 19 points on 8-18 shooting with 5 turnovers. It has been said that Boston coach KC Jones decided to let Jordan get his in Game 1 & 2 while shutting down everyone else. Seeing how close the first 2 games were and the fact that MJ could go for 60+ points if "you let him get his", KC decided to reverse the strategy and lock down on MJ in Game 3 which supposedly destroyed his offensive rhythm.

86-87 Season:

11/14/86-

Bird: 37/10/5 (52%)
Jordan: 48/5/1 (51.5%)

Celtics win.

01/02/87-

Bird: 37/8/9 (61.1%)
Jordan: 34/8/3 (41.9%)

Celtics win. Bird easily outplays Jordan.

27/01/87-

Bird: 24/14/3 (39%)
Jordan: 30/5/6 (38%)

Celtics win.

28/01/87-

Bird: 26/5/9 (65%)
Jordan: 27/4/4 (48%)

Celtics win. Bird wins match-up.

27/03/87-

Bird: 41/7/7 (58.6%)
Jordan: 22/7/7 (39.1%)

Celtics win. Bird easily wins match-up.

17/04/87-

Bird: 38/8/7 (59%)
Jordan: 17/4/8 (33%)

Celtics win. Bird easily wins match-up.

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 33.7/8.8/6.5 (56%)
Jordan: 29.7/5.5/4.8 (43%)

Bird really pistol-whipped MJ this season. Outplayed him in arguably every game and Celtics won 6-0.

87 Playoffs:

Game 1-

Jordan: 35/6/7 (12/25, 11/11)
Bird: 17/9/13 (4/7, 7/7)

Game 2-

Jordan: 42/4/4 (14/29, 12/14)
Bird: 29/7/8 (9/17, 11/13)

Game 3-

Jordan: 30/11/7 (9/30, 12/14)
Bird: 32/14/6 (11/21, 10/11)

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 26.0/10.0/9.0 (53%)
Jordan: 35.7/7.0/6.0 (41.7%)

Celtics win 3-0.

Bird again outplayed MJ in this postseason. Jordan scored more in volume but on poor efficiency and again saved his worst game for the pivotal Game 3 in Chicago. With the Bulls up 7 with 11 min left, Jordan went 0-8 from the field the rest of the way and 9-30 overall. Bird scored 15 points in the final stanza, dominating the Bulls and sweeping the series.

87-88 Season:

12/01/88-

Bird: 38/9/8 (58%)
Jordan: 42/4/6 (53%)

Celtics win. Bird wins match-up.

18/03/88-

Bird: 19/10/6 (42%)
Jordan: 50/5/9 (59%)

Bulls win. Jordan finally wins head to head and it's the only time he really outplayed Bird in these 2 seasons.

20/03/88-

Bird: 33/7/8 (67%)
Jordan: 26/4/7 (56%)

Celtics win. Bird wins match-up

21/04/88-

Bird: 44/10/3 (65.5%)
Jordan: 39/3/8 (51.5%)

Celtics win. Bird wins match-up.

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 33.5/9.0/6.3 (59%)
Jordan: 39.3/4.0/7.5 (55%)

Stats are close this year but they are skewed by the one game Jordan dominated and outscored Bird 50-19. Bird still outplayed MJ in 3/4 games and Boston went 3-1.

88-89 Season:

11/09/88-

Bird: 18/10/6 (36.8%)

Jordan: 52/3/2 (54.5%)

Bulls win. Jordan takes this one easily. Bird plays just 6 games all year due to back injury and is never really the same afterwards.

89-90 Season:

11/04/89-

Bird: 27/9/6 (50.0%)

Jordan: 24/5/6 (55.6%)

Celtics win.

03/04/90-

Bird: 38/11/9 (50.0%)

Jordan: 36/6/11 (47.8%)

Bulls win.

04/17/90-

Bird: 23/5/8 (39.1%)

Jordan: 35/11/6 (54.2%)

Bulls win.

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 29.3/8.3/7.7 (46.8%)

Jordan: 31.7/7.3/7.7 (52.3%)

Impressive showings by a declining Bird. He plays Jordan to a virtual draw.

90-91 Season:

11/06/90-

Bird: 24/11/1 (68.8%)

Jordan: 33/8/12 (50.0%)

Celtics win.

11/09/90-

Bird: 23/8/5 (40.0%)

Jordan: 41/5/6 (68.0%)

Bulls win.

02/26/91-

Bird: 12/7/5 (42.9%)

Jordan: 39/8/4 (58.6%)

Celtics win.

03/31/91-

Bird: 34/15/8 (41.7%)

Jordan: 37/7/9 (33.3%)

Bulls win.

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 23.3/10.3/4.8 (46.5%)

Jordan: 37.5/7.0/7.8 (50.8%)

91-92 Season:

11/06/91-

Bird: 30/2/9 (59.1%)

Jordan: 44/3/6 (61.5%)

Bulls win.

12/25/91-

Bird: 8/8/4 (40.0%)

Jordan: 14/8/5 (42.9%)

Bulls win.

03/11/92-

Bird: 10/4/6 (26.7%)

Jordan: 32/13/3 (60.9%)

Bulls win.

Cumulative Stats-

Bird: 16.0/4.7/6.3 (44.7%)

Jordan: 30.0/8.0/4.7 (57.1%)


So, with both stars in their prime (from '86-'88), Bird outplayed Jordan in a large portion of the games. More importantly, Celtics went 14-3 against Chicago in the regular season and a stunning 6-0 in the postseason.

What makes Bird outplaying MJ in so many games even more impressive is that his USG% was almost half of MJ's... Bird played within his team (which was more talented though no doubt) and Jordan tried to do everything on his own which inflated his stats.

BTW, at the end of the video you've just posted they talk about the "rematch at Boston Garden on Sunday"... That rematch ended up with a 137-107 beatdown in favor of the Celtics, while Bird decisively outplayed Jordan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp0NMFf9Dkg

Bird lucky he didn't face Jordan in the Playoffs after 1987???
Game-winner right in Jordan and Pippen's face from 1989-1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHSyfx6N-YA

7:44 minutes of Bird schooling Jordan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKoXZ1f00Mc

4:23 minutes of Bird schooling Pippen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcXp3PSRGvw

........

*hating-mode off*

Anyways, just trying to make a point here... all of that shit leads to basically nothing and can be made both ways. No need to do it just because someone else did it (yea, from that other thread).