This Day(s) In Bulls History - 1/15-17/2005 - Bulls/Knicks MLK Weekend Back-to-Back feat. "The Play" and BG game-winner

[OldSchoolNoBull]

January 15 and January 17, 2005.

Twenty years ago today, the Skiles Bulls hosted the Isiah Thomas-era Knicks at the UC for the first half of an MLK weekend back-to-back; twenty years ago this Friday, the Knicks hosted the Bulls at MSG for the second half of that back-to-back, on MLK Day itself.

The Bulls won both games on their final possessions - the first on a defensive-stop-turned-fastbreak where four out of five players touched the ball that became known within the fanbase as "The Play", and the second on a Ben Gordon layup in the half-court. It was a long time ago, and in my earliest months on this board, but my recollection is that this board was buzzing in the aftermath.

But to understand why a random regular-season B2B against a bad Knicks team was reason for so much excitement, we must remember the context.

The Context

The post-dynasty years under Krause - what ended up being the final years of his tenure as general manager - were a dismal time. We had won 13, 17, 15, 21, and 30 games from 1999 to 2003. It's not just that we were bad, it's that the culture had become toxic. I'll always hold that Krause was one of the greatest GMs ever, but by this point he was negative asset in terms of attracting players. Some guys that were here didn't want to be - Elton Brand, for example, wanted out after two years, and it's part of the reason he was traded. I remember an interview Jay Williams gave years later where he claimed some of the guys were getting high before games(though some refuted that). It was just a bleak period, made worse by its proximity to the dynasty - rooting for those teams when you'd been rooting for an all-time great team just a few years earlier was...an adjustment. I actually do have some fond memories from that period - mostly the 2002-03 team - but for the most part there just wasn't much to root for.

That era came to an end with Krause's resignation in the Spring of 2003. John "Pax" Paxson was hired to take over(skipping over Krause's assistant BJ Armstrong, for which BJ was apparently salty for years) a short time later, and the first 18 months of his tenure would largely be cleaning house.

Pax's first big act was the 2003 draft selection, but Jay Williams' career-ending motorcycle accident days before that draft altered the course of that decision and, in need of a PG and lacking the assets to trade up for Wade or Bosh, he took Kirk Hinrich at #7. Captain Kirk, who had been one of the leaders of a Kansas team that had been the runner-up in the NCAA Tournament, was the OG "Pax Guy" - the beginning of a pattern that would see Pax draft high-character types from high-pedigree programs.

Before the season started, Trenton Hassell was waived and free-agent Fred Hoiberg was allowed to walk, and they both ended up in Minnesota. In November, Jalen Rose, Donyell Marshall, and Lonnie Baxter were traded to Toronto for veteran big-man Antonio Davis and Jerome "Junk Yard Dog" Williams. Shortly after that trade, Pax fired his former teammate, head coach Bill Cartwright, and hired Scott Skiles to take over. The Bulls finished the 2003-04 season with 23 wins, netting the team the #3 overall pick.

Marcus Fizer, the 2000 #4 pick who had recently returned from an ACL tear and was presently a RFA, was left unprotected in the expansion draft for the Charlotte Bobcats, and ended up not making their roster after being selected(he played 2004-05 in Milwaukee and got a couple of 10-day contracts and a rest-of-season contract in 2006 and that was it for him).

Two nights later, Pax selected Ben Gordon out of UConn, fresh off a national championship, at #3 and then traded the Bulls' 2005 1st for the #7 overall pick, which he used to select Luol Deng out of Duke, coming off a Final Four appearance. After using his second round pick on Chris Duhon out of that same Duke team, Pax walked away from draft night with three guys who featured prominently in that year's Final Four.

In August, Pax signed Andres "Noc" Nocioni, fresh off winning Olympic gold as part of Argentina's Big 3(along with Ginobili and Scola), and sign-and-traded RFA Jamal Crawford - along with Junk Yard Dog - to the very same Knicks team we played in the B2B this thread is honoring. After re-routing Dikembe Mutombo(who didn't want to be here) to Houston, we ended up with Othella Harrington, Eric "Pike" Piatkowski, Adrian Griffin, and Frank Williams(though Williams really didn't play much and wasn't a factor).

Finally, just four days before the start of the regular season, Eddie Robinson - one of Krause's big free agent signings - was waived with two years and over 10M left on his contract.

And so when opening night 2004 arrived, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry were the only "Krause guys" left on the roster, and the organization seemed ready to turn the page on the previous half-decade.

But the new-look Bulls started the season 0-9, and by December 13, they were sitting at 4-15, dashing everyone's hopes and looking to all like another cellar dweller.

And then, out of nowhere, from December 15 to 22, we went on a five game winning streak, ending with a road win over the defending champion Pistons, taking us to 9-15. We went into a 1-3 slump over the next four, taking us to 10-18, and then went on another five game winning streak from January 5 to January 12, taking us to 15-18. That brings us to this B2B, having won 11 of the last 14 going in.

After the horrific start to the season, we were within striking difference of .500. That may not sound like a big deal, but you have to remember that at that point in time, we had hit .500 exactly twice post-dynasty: we opened the 2002-03 2-0 before losing four in a row and never getting to .500 again; and we started 2003-04 1-1 before losing the third game and never getting to .500 again. So achieving .500 this far into the season actually did mean something.

The First Game

The first game at the UC tipped off at 3:30PM that Saturday afternoon. Jamal Crawford missed this one with turf toe, an injury he'd been dealing with for weeks, so the Knicks were undermanned, starting Nazr Mohammed, Kurt Thomas, Junk Yard Dog, Allan Houston, and Stephon Marbury, with a young Trevor Ariza, Mike Sweetney, and Moochie Norris headlining the bench. We started Curry, Antonio Davis, Deng, Duhon, and Hinrich, with Chandler, Noc, Gordon, and Harrington headlining the bench. (It would de-rail the post too much to get into the whole saga of Skiles refusing to start Gordon.)

The Bulls led 22-20 after the first quarter, Eddy Curry leading all scorers with 9. The Knicks outscored us by 7 in the second, going into the half with a 42-37 lead. Stephon Marbury led all scorers in the third with 11 as the Knicks outscored us by 4, going into the fourth with a 65-56 lead. The fourth quarter was all Chicago, as the Bulls went on a furious rally, outscoring the Knicks 30-19. Leading the way was Ben Gordon with 14 points, including two threes; Hinrich with 7, including one 3; and Curry with 6. Of note is that Deng didn't play at all in the fourth, benched in favor of Noc.

We managed to tie the game at 77 at 5:37 off a Gordon jump shot, and then the two teams went back and forth until 1:12 when they were tied again at 84 after Gordon and Ariza both split free throws. For the next minute, both teams missed everything - a Gordon two pointer, a Noc three, a Marbury three, Adrian Griffin at the FT line, everything was a miss.

Finally, Marbury has the ball with 20 seconds left and a chance to win it. He tries to come off a Kurt Thomas screen for a three, but Captain Kirk does a good job going over the screen and he and Tyson Chandler end up doubling Marbury. Marbury passes out of the double to Thomas, who swings it around to Ariza in the mid-range on the other side. Ariza shoots, but Noc blocks the shot. The ball goes high and is sailing out of bounds, but Tyson leaps out save it, throwing it back inbounds, right into the hands of Captain Kirk who had run towards him to receive the ball. Captain Kirk immediately turns around and heaves the ball downcourt to a streaking Noc, who then passes it cross-court to Curry. Curry drives into the paint and lays it in with two seconds remaining, 86-84. The Knicks ran one more play, a Nazr Mohammed(I think) post-up, but to no avail. Bulls win.

(Apologies for the poor quality of the video, but it's all there is. It was a non-national broadcast from 2005 - we're lucky we even have this. The cool thing is it's Mike Breen, before he became a big name, with the call!)

Watch on YouTube

The Second Game

The second game at MSG tipped off at 1PM on Monday/MLK Day. Crawford returned to play the Bulls for the first time since he was traded, but did not start, essentially taking Moochie Norris's minutes(Norris didn't play this game). Other than that, the rotation was the same. On our side, Antonio Davis sat this one out, with Harrington starting in his place, and Pike picking up the extra bench minutes.

Marbury led all scorers in the first with ten points, as the Knicks outscored the Bulls 28-20. The second quarter saw the Bulls outscore the Knicks 23-20, led by Deng with 8 points(including two threes) and Noc with 7 points(including one three), cutting the lead to five at the half, 43-48. The third quarter was the Captain Kirk show, as he led all scorers with 12 points(including two threes) to go along with five boards and three assists, helping the Bulls outscore the Knicks 25-19. Noc got sent to the FT line at the buzzer on a Marbury foul and split the shots to put the Bulls up one heading into the fourth, 68-67.

The fourth quarter was, again, Gordon time, as BG led all scorers with 13 points on 9 shots(including one three). But the Knicks had actually opened up a lead midway through, 79-74 at 5:40, and then 84-76 at 3:33 after a Marbury And-1. But the Knicks didn't score another FG after that, while the Bulls got hot.

Gordon hits a three at 3:22, 84-79. Crawford misses an 18-footer at 3:04. Chandler misses a jumper at 2:42. Captain Kirk fouls Marbury, Marbury splits the FTs at 2:26, 85-79. Gordon hits a layup at 2:18, And-1, but misses the FT, 85-81. Crawford misses a 3 at 1:52, Sweetney gets the offensive board, gets fouled by Tyson, and splits his FTs at 1:31, 86-81. Gordon hits another layup at 1:22, 86-83. Marbury misses a layup at 1:05. Noc hits a three at 56.9 seconds tie it up, 86-86.

Kurt Thomas misses a long 19-foot jump shot at 36.9 seconds. Gordon misses a layup at the rim at 18.9 seconds, Noc tries to tip it in but can't at 17.3 seconds, Noc gets his own offensive board at 16.1 seconds, and a timeout is called.

On the final play, Captain Kirk brings the ball up and gets it to Gordon just past the top of the arc on the left side with about 6.6 seconds remaining. Gordon runs all the away around to the right side of the arc before making a lightning fast drive into the paint, opting to go for his own shot instead of passing to Captain Kirk for a corner three; he beats his man off the dribble(I think it was Sweetney but I'm not 100% sure), and puts up a floater, going real high off the glass, and into the basket with a tenth of a second remaining, 88-86. Bulls win. The Knicks watch the Bulls celebrate for the second time in three days.

Watch on YouTube

Wrap-Up

After this B2B, the Bulls record sat at 17-18. They lost the next game in Boston to fall to 17-19, but then went on another five game winning streak(including ANOTHER road win over the defending champion Pistons) to get up to 22-19, breaking .500 at the latest point in the season since 1998. They would stay over .500 for the remainder of the season, finishing with 47 wins, earning their first playoff berth since the dynasty, and even going up 2-0 over the Wizards before blowing it.

I leave you with one more video - it's a mixtape of 2004-05 season, set to Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Fantasy". It's got "The Play" and the Gordon game-winner in slightly better quality(but without the call) as well as a few other shots from the fourth quarter of the MSG game. You can watch the whole thing, or here are the timestamps for the relevant parts(the video is a little out of order):

1:22 - Noc game-tying three at MSG, 56.9 seconds in the 4th
2:36 - Gordon layup at MSG, 2:18 in the 4th
2:51 - Gordon layup at MSG, 1:22 in the 4th
3:44 - Gordon game-winner at MSG
4:35 - "The Play" at The UC

Watch on YouTube

This B2B was probably the most exciting moment of an exciting season because, I think, it was the moment we all started believing this team could be for real. I think part of the reason "The Play" resonated so much was because while we'd had some talented players post-dynasty - Brand, Artest, Crawford, Jalen Rose, Jay Williams - it had been a long time since we'd seen that kind of teamwork. Seeing Gordon go off in the fourth in both games and hit the game winner in the second one was so exciting because it felt like we had a legitimately clutch player for the first time since you know who. And, frankly, it had also been a long time since we'd seen our guys care that much. They were PUMPED to get those wins.

It had been cloudy for seven years, and this was the first time the sun came out since the summer of '98. I thought it was a moment worth remembering.

[wickywack]

Wow, I can't believe that was 20 years ago!

One of my favorite Bulls' seasons. "Only" 49 wins and a first round loss, but it felt heavenly after the miserable post-Jordan lows. And so so unexpected. Chicago had a basketball team worth rooting for again.

[HomoSapien]

Really fun read, thanks for the write-up!

In some ways, that team is my favorite non-dynasty team. The Rose-Noah group was better and incredibly likable as well, but there was something special about the 04 group. All the core pieces had only played on the Bulls and it was a Disney-like underdog story. Some random thoughts:

1.) Mutombo deservingly wanted to spend his twilight years on a contender. The Rockets were a better bet, but they ended up having less success than us during the following three seasons. During that time, I often felt like we made a mistake by trading him. I initially thought we should have kept him until the trade deadline to be a mentor to Curry/Chandler. Once we started playing well, we really could have used him. There's a chance we beat Washington in the playoffs that year if we had Mutombo to fill in for Curry.

2.) Speaking of Curry, a big what-if for me has always been what would have happened to this team if Curry stayed. Chances are he never reaches his potential, but I always felt like Skiles was the type of coach he needed and that though he was flawed we figured out a way to optimize his strengths and limit his weaknesses. That team had unbelievable chemistry and we messed that up a bit trading him and Antonio Davis. Obviously the return was unbelievable, and we nearly walked away with Joakim Noah and LaMarcus Aldridge.

3.) It's too bad Scott Skiles is so abrasive, because the coaching job he did that year is one of the most underrated performances ever. That team had no business winning 47 games. He had two notable feats with the Bulls: 1.) Getting that team to the playoffs. 2.) Sweeping Miami, the defending champs, two years later. Those were two accomplishments no one saw coming.

[dougthonus]

Still one of my all time favorite Bulls seasons, and this was definitely the defining moment. "The Play" is one of my most memorable Bulls events.

[drosestruts]

That team was going nowhere. They should have tanked. Those wins were meaningless.

[prolific passer]

04 draft was a great draft for the bulls. Started off 0-9. Finished 47-35 which was 3rd in the east. If Curry and Deng were healthy they probably win 50 and beat the wizards in the first round.

[samwana]

Great read, I enjoyed it very much!

Yeah that team had so much promise and was one of the funnest seasons after MJ

BG was and still is one of my favorite players. Imagine Rose with BG next to him as a shooter. What could have been. I was so sad they let BG go to Detroit, one of the worst moments of my 'Bulls Live'

The draft night BG and Luol were drafted I was flying to Cape Town. Mobiles weren't around much yet. So we looked for an internet café at Johannesburg airport on our stop there, bc I had to know our picks. Seems like such a long time long ago.

Thanks for the memories!

[prolific passer]

Paxson wanted to change the culture of the team and bring in players who knew how to and wanted to win. 04 draft gave the bulls Duhon and Deng who were in the final 4 and Duhon has a NCAA title, Gordon just came off the NCAA title, and Noc just won a gold medal. Basically drafted 2 impact starters right away in Gordon and Deng and 2 impact bench players in Noc and Duhon to help you win games.