Once the playoffs started, you could see the boredom wear off as they ratcheted up the intensity and proceed to rip off a 15-4 record en route to the title. Another fact about Pippen that people tend to forget is that during these three seasons he averaged 17.3 ppg in the playoffs while shooting 40.8 % from the field. They won 14 of their first 15 games in the playoffs, and the loss to the Knicks came in overtime. The 1990's Chicago Bulls are the greatest dynasty in NBA history. The Phoenix Suns were a precursor to Chris Webber's Sacramento Kings and eventually Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors. In the playoffs he had 7.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.0 bpg. section: | slug: ranking-michael-jordans-10-best-playoff-opponents-during-bulls-six-championship-seasons | sport: basketball | route: article_single.us | They reached the Finals six times during the decade and came away with sixNBAtitles -- including two separate three-peats -- becoming arguably one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history in the process. After losing to the Bulls in the 1997 NBA Finals, the Jazz got another shot in 1998. Now lets take a look at the second three-peat Bulls team. Now theyll seek to add their second Triple-A national championship. NHL had seven teams , (and sometimes more). In the playoffs he averaged 7.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.6 apg. In the 1996 and 1997 playoffs he shot 32.1 % and 38.1 % from the three-point line, respectively. After all the losses and learned lessons leading up to the Chicago Bulls' first appearance in the NBA Finals, the fact that Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers stood in the way was apropos. This time the Jazz had home-court advantage after they secured the first seed in the league with 62 wins. In the playoffs he averaged 1.1 three-point shot attempts. The iconic shot to end Game 6 is what most will remember, yet the hardcore relentlessness of Karl Malone, John Stockton, the Utah Jazz and their erstwhile head coach, Jerry Sloan, made the storybook ending just that more compelling. Hes really the only good shooter the Bulls had for more than 1 season during the championship years, but even his shooting gets overrated. Though the Bulls had the same record as the Phoenix Suns in the Western Division, the Bulls lost the tiebreaker and finished third. Here is the list of Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference championships: Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were 6-6 in the NBA Finals The Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan dominated the 1990's. Utah Jazz (1997 & 1998) Bulls won all series 4-2 except In the Eastern Conference Finals the Bulls faced a tough Indiana Pacers team. Robert Horry won seven championships through his time with the Rockets, Lakers and Spurs. In the First round the Bulls played against the Heat. (Won 0 Rounds), Lost Western Conference Finals Combining those three seasons, Paxson averaged just 0.8 three-point shot attempts. Their Finals series against Utah was the most competitive of the six title teams; five of the six games were decided by two or fewer possessions. Jordan could not lead the Bulls past the first round of the playoffs by himself losing to the champion Celtics and in 1987 general manager Jerry Krause acquired Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant at that summer's draft. Also, teams and players wanted to beat Jordan. They had to deal with the powerful duo of Malone and Stockton (again). That Knicks team is considered one of the greatest defensive teams in NBA history. His teammate, Rick Smits, joined him on the All-Star team. WebThe Chicago Bulls have won as many conference championships as they have championships. There was a shaky moment in the conference finals against the blossoming Knicks, who rode the tough-guy front line Ewing, Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley to 60 victories and the No. 1991 - beat the Lakers 4-1 1992 - beat the Trail Blazers 4-2 1993 - beat the Suns 4-2 1996 - beat the Supersonics 4-2 1997 - beat the Jazz 4-2 1998 Which one of those teams, though, was the best? Jordan retired after the 1993 season and missed most of the next two seasons, and the Bulls reached the Eastern Conference semifinals each of those two seasons. They defeated two of the top three teams in the league in four of their six championship runs: 1992 (Cavaliers and Blazers), 1993 (Knicks and Suns), 1996 (Magic and Sonics), and 1997 (Heat and Jazz). The Lakers were still good enough to win 58 regular season games and advance all the way to the NBA Finals, but once there they couldn't keep up with the young and hungry Bulls, who won the series in five games. Scottie Pippen, the small forward, was in his prime during this time, butpeople overrate him. He was a member of the All-Defensive second team. Here is a reminder who did the Chicago Bulls beat in the NBA Finals. The Bulls second round opponent was the Knicks. The two worst starts to a Bulls Please logout and login again. By the time they Bulls were back to the playoffs, they were again using the rotation similar to what worked so beautifully the previous two years, albeit with Kukoc frequently filling Rodmans spot as a starter. [7] They had a chance to win the first pick of the 1979 NBA Draft, which would have allowed them to select future Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. The Bulls were decidedly perimeter-oriented during the six championship runs. They were 8th in Opponent points per game and 9th in Defensive Rating. of the Eastern Conference. Malone made the All-NBA First team and All-Defensive First team. KISS Tickets Los Angeles at Hollywood Bowl! Heat coach Pat Riley had won the Coach of the Year award. National Basketball Association. MORE: The key stats you need to know in the MJ vs. LeBron debate. All in all, there is no Bulls title season that can quite measure up with this one. Michael Jordan and theChicago Bullsenjoyed immense success during the 1990s. [6] The Bulls' new playoff streak ended in 2008, when the team finished fourth in their division with a 3349 record. Be the first one to comment on this story. Did Jordan ever face true competition? Once there, the Jazz put up a good fight against Chicago, as three of the Bulls' wins in the series were by four points or fewer, including Game 1, which the Bulls won thanks to a Jordan buzzer-beater. This was the only Bulls title team that didnt reach the 60-win plateau, with the offense fading and more reliant on Jordan than at any point during the teams championship run. This was the best record achieved by an NBA expansion team in its first year of play, a feat which earned Kerr the NBA Coach of the Year Award. Chicago, Detroit, New York Rangers, Montreal & Toronto) came to Rebounding leader:De Not only do I think Jordan and the Bulls would have won the two championships that the Rockets won because Jordan retired early and played Baseball They were in the midst of completing the best three-year run, record-wise, of any team in NBA history, and by the end, they were hanging on by a thread. Jordan averaged 31.2 points per game, 11.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds in the series which he highlighted with the iconic"switch hands"layup. after that the Airness retires ..to play baseball..are you kidding me imagevRussell,Karrem,Magic,Bird,DrJ,and all the other greats,AKA Kobe ,Lebron,Shaq,Duncan,played till the wheels fell off played every play till they couldnt do it no more..he will never be the greatest (Mike)if it werent for commisioner to step in and stop the trade for Chris Paul coming to LA this would be a Kobe conversation. Steve Kerr was the backup guard. They were 2nd in the East behind the New York Knicks and 3rd in the league overall, while having "just" the 4th best-expected win total. pic.twitter.com/vsQJpCnhfK, MORE:Michael Jordan's six championship Bulls teams, ranked. Key players during the Motta era included Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Chet Walker, Norm Van Lier, and Tom Boerwinkle. He was slightly better than Cartwright, averaging stats like 9.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 1.2 bpg during this time. Average allowed:92.3 (Sixth in NBA) 4. Even with few attempts, he shot 29.4 percent from three-point line in the 1992 playoffs. In 2022, the Chicago Bulls lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference First Round. In his path to 6 titles, Jordan beat the likes of Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley (twice), Patrick Ewing (four times), Reggie Miller, Dikembe Mutombo, as well as the duos of Shaquille ONeal and Anfernee Hardaway, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning (twice), and John Stockton and Karl Malone (twice). Coach Phil Jackson, an assistant since 1987, succeeded Doug Collins as head coach after that season and in 1991, the team won their first of three consecutive NBA championships by defeating Magic Johnson and the Lakers. They were 34-31 before Jordan made his return. John Paxson was one of the Bulls starting guards. The Jordan shrug has become a social media fixture since social media platforms exploded across the internet, and the meme originated in Game 1. A player like Kerr should be over 40 %, which he was in the 1998 playoffs. In the First round the Bulls faced the New Jersey Nets. This was the fourth Bulls championship, earned in the first full season after Michael Jordan returned from his mid-90s retirement. They had winning streaks of 13 and 18 games and only once lost consecutive games, to the Nuggets and Suns on an early February trip West. In the playoffs it was more of the same, they ripped through the East only losing one game by a total of three points and avenging their loss to the Magic the year early with a resounding sweep. Six players from the 199798 Bulls (Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Luc Longley, Jud Buechler,[6] and Scott Burrell[13]) joined other teams through free agency or sign-and-trade deals, and with few established players left on the roster, the Bulls missed the 1999 playoffs. Toni Kukoc was the backup forward. This and the #2 on the list were the toughest decisions to make, as both seasons were basically equally as dominant. They weren't quite as good record-wise as they were the previous season (62 wins in '97-98 compared to 64 wins in '96-97), but they were virtually the same squad as they were the year before. (Won 0 Rounds), Lost Western Division Semifinals This season was a little different for the Bulls because they would meet some pretty good duos. However, this proved to be a minor hiccup for Chicago as they capped the series off with a dominant defensive performance in a 12 point win. Most notable among those was getting past the Pistons, but they also had to conquer a Lakers team accustomed to winning titles (but not used to doing it without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Answer: Rodman 8. Cartwright needed more help from Scott Williams to man the middle. The Jazz owned the second seed in the league when they won 64 games. This makes their efficiency stats even more impressive, as the two stars constantly had to adapt and adjust their game to meet who their teammates were on a given night. He had a high shooting percentage, but with few shot attempts. It was another example of Jordan and the Bulls demonstrating that when it would be easy to relax explicable, even they still discovered the motivation to push through toward greatness. This was a great group of players, but as you can see, Jordans supporting cast is overrated. The Bulls had to surmount mental hurdles to at last win a championship with Jordan on their side. In the Finals, they were well on their way to capping off a 15-1 playoff record before the SuperSonics ruined the impending coronation by beating the Bulls in games 4 and 5. Hardaway and ONeal were teammates on the All-Star team. [5] The only three NBA franchises that have won more championships than the Bulls are the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers (17 Championships each), and the Golden State Warriors with 7. Which jersey numbers have the New York Knicks retired. Mutombo and Christian Laettner were members of the All-Star team. No one ever came so close again to eliminating a full-strength Jordan/Bulls team. MJ never played in a Game 7 in the Finals and only trailed in a Finals series twice. The Bulls first title was the culmination of a climb that started in the 1984-85 season when they drafted Jordan with the #2 pick in the draft and saw them lose to the Detroit Pistons in back-to-back season in the Eastern Conference Finals before this year. The last title in the Bulls first three-peat reeked of tired legs and a team just waiting for the Playoffs to start. six teams and they operated that way until six new teams were added So the 1994 Bulls didnt have to carry the burden the 1993 Bulls had to. Magic Johnson was the runner-up for the MVP award, and was also a member of the All-NBA first team. Their second round opponent, the Charlotte Hornets, had a member of the All-NBA third team (Glen Rice). Chicago beat the Los Angeles Lakers led by Magic Johnson in five games. In Fridays sectional semifinal, Boatright logged eight In the 1950s, it was the Minneapolis Lakers, the 60s was ruled by the Boston Celtics, the 70s, coincidentally, is the forgotten decade of the league and also had no team or teams that were the signature draws at that time. The Heat were also coached by Riley. Clyde Drexler, a prominent mixture of Hall of Famer Julius Erving, elite versatility and athleticism of the 1990's was often compared to Michael Jordan. Behind Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson, the Bulls defeated the LA Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics, and Utah Jazz (twice) Though the Bulls had the same record as the Atlanta Hawks in the Central Division, the Bulls won the tiebreaker and finished second. For those who say that this wasnt a competitive era, the 1997 season featured ten 50-win teams, including three 60-win teams. Larry Nance made the All-Defensive second team, and Terrell Brando was a member of the All-Rookie Second team. LA Lakers, Portland Trailblazers, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics, and Utah Jazz twice in that order. Most basketball fans know that Michael Jordan won six championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 90s and went 6-0 in the Finals. In how many games did the Bulls win their championships? [6] However, Jordan returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and lost in 1995 NBA Playoff despite posting one of his best numbers and close to his playoff average and with the added help of rebounding specialist Dennis Rodman, the team won three more championships from 1996 to 1998. League Champion: Houston Rockets. Joe Dumars made the All-NBA third team and the All-Defensive second team. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls enjoyed immense success during the 1990s. The focus is on Jordan, whopushed the Bulls to those championship runs. The 1990s Chicago Bulls won six NBA Championships while they were being led by Michael Jordan. Ultimately, though, they couldn't sustain that success, as the Bulls went on to win the next four games in order to advance to the NBA Finals, where they would win their third straight title. How many championships did Michael Jordan win? The Cavaliers had won 57 games, which was the second most victories in the NBA. Chicago Bulls beat five teams in the NBA Championship: Los Chicago jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the series over the Sonics, and eventually took the series 4-2 in order to claim their fourth title. Brand shared Rookie of the Year honors with. He wasnt even an All-Star during this time, nor was he a player that could dominate the post, but he was a good rebounder. Almost any way you measure team success over a season, this team tops the chart. Michael Jordan was Finals MVP in each of the six title runs. 7. The Chicago Bulls, in claiming those six NBA titles, were never tested in a seventh Game. Central Division Game 5 was a game in which Scottie Pippen became an NBA superstar with a flurry of offensive and defensive plays in the clutch, and suddenly the Chicago Bulls were more than simply Air Jordan. The Chicago Bulls last made the playoffs in 2022, when they lost the Eastern Conference First Round. Chicago Bulls Postseason Results Chicago Bulls Pages Chicago Bulls Head To Head The Chicago Bulls in 1997 had to fly past the Utah Jazz to claim their 5th NBA title of the decade. [6] Considered the greatest basketball player of all time by NBA.com,[10] Jordan averaged 28.2 points per game during his first season and received the 1985 NBA Rookie of the Year Award.