Post#169 » by LakerLegend » Sun Apr 25, 2021 12:29 am
The 90's Bulls got a little lucky too.
1991, Worthy injures his ankle against Portland in the playoffs, comes in hobbled into the Finals. With their second best player Worthy slowed, on top of losing him in top health the Laker were further incumbered because the Bulls were able to slide Pippen onto Magic, who was making short work of Jordan when guarded by him but had more trouble with Pippen(though make no mistake, Magic consistently got by Pippen but was swarmed by the Bulls team D). A healthy Worthy prevents this because Pippen has to stay on him. Byron Scott also got injured later in the series. Although the series went 5 games, it was very competitive and might have been a different series if Worthy was healthy. Also keep in mind, this wasn’t Prime Magic. He’d been in the league since he was 20 and had played as many playoff games at this point as Jordan would in his entire career. He was still great, but his knees were shot compared to what he was athletically a few years earlier. Give the Lakers a Peak Magic, healthy Worthy and Scott and who knows?
1992. I don’t really have anything to say about this year, the Bulls were one of the best teams ever and still got really tough series from the Blazers and Knicks. Actually, I do have something to say which you will see below.
1993, the Suns lose Cedric Ceballos in the Western playoffs, a key rotation player and offensive contributor. Again, another very competitive series where having Ceballos might have been enough to tip the balance. Ceballos dropped 27 points in the Suns regular season win at Chicago, and was generally pretty effective player against them. I think this series is a 7 game toss up with a healthy Ceballos.
1996. The Magic beat the Bulls in 1995, regardless of Jordan being “rusty”(Keep in mind Jordan still put up better numbers in those playoffs than he did in 96/96/98), a key reason being that the Bulls didn’t have the services of a Horace Grant or Rodman to crash the boards and play defense downlow. Flash forward to 1996, and Horace Grant comes into the series with a bad elbow, and is forced to sit almost the entire series. He was the Magic’s 3rd best player, and for all the talk of revenge the Magic played them well in the regular season. The Bulls most likely still win, but a healthy Grant makes it a 6 or 7 game series.
1997: The Bulls may have avoided 2 of their biggest challenges this season in the Rockets/Knicks. The Rockets and Bulls exchanged blowout wins in the regular season, the Rockets also had I believe the best or second best winning percentage in the league when all 3 of their stars were healthy. There was a lot of talk then about how they may have been a tougher matchup for the Bulls than the Jazz. In all fairness the Jazz beat the Rockets fair and square, but the Rockets may have been a tougher matchup for the Bulls. There’s been some who thought(some of the players on the team who’s names have been lost to time) that the 97 Knicks were the best of the 90’s Knicks teams and that would have been their best shot against the Bulls. They were up 3-1 against the Heat and the huge brawl in the middle of the series resulted in key suspensions which led to them losing the series. They most likely would have given the Bulls a much better playoff series.
1998: See below. The Bulls gutted out a great championship but were obviously a step below the previous teams. Teams they faced in earlier Finals like the Lakers, Blazers, Suns, and Sonics(not to mention the 92/93 Knicks) may have all beaten this years Bulls in a series matchup.
Short 3 point line: The short 3 point line really boosted the 96 and 97 Bulls by turning both Jordan and Pippen into pretty solid 3 point sharpshooters. It’s not just about hitting more of them at a better clip, but about it helping to open up your whole game. Undoubtedly, it made guarding Jordan tougher because now teams had to really respect his 3 point shot, opening up all possibilities for his game like easier driving lanes. Jordan made as many 3’s in those short years I believe as he did in the rest of his career, this really helped prolong his effectiveness as he aged. I don’t think the 96 and 97 Bulls teams are as dominant with the real 3 point line, period.
Now think about this. The two series the Bulls played that went 7 games were in 92 against the Knicks and 98 against the Pacers. Reggie and Ewing were both great players, but a step(In Reggie’s case a significant step) below tier 1 greats. I'm not even talking about guys like Duncan or Magic, but below guys like Barkley, D-Rob, or in Reggie's case even a Ray Allen or Paul Pierce.
What happens if you swap Ewing with Shaq or Olajuwon? Reggie with Kobe or Curry? Good chance the Bulls lose those series. Or let’s take it a step further, give both those teams better second options along the lines of most legit contenders. Jalen Rose, Mark Jackson, Starks, McDaniel? Good players, not great players. The Bulls faced great teams and players in their 90’s runs, but the two teams who took them to 7 games could have easily beaten them if given a star player of top 5-10(yearly) caliber.
