Its the NBA FINALS: '96 Bulls vs '17 Warriors - Who will win a 7-game series?

[bulls96]

CHICAGO -- With a 3-1 advantage and playing at home, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls try to closeout their erstwhile GOAT rivals Durant's Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of this outstanding Finals series.

Can Durant and company respond to fight another day?

Watch the game here: https://youtu.be/a56tqKvv4BU

Bulls had a hot start as Jordan looked like he was on a mission to finish this series. THey led 12-5 halfway forcing an early timeout by Coach Kerr. The Warriors showed their firepower by responding quickly, led by Steph Curry who would heat up scoring 8 in an 18-9 run by the Warriors to close the quarter, helping GS lead by 2 going into the 2nd. 23-21


Durant started the 2nd with two quick buckets, while Klay scored on consecutive 3's early. THe Bulls got stagnant and GS completed a 16-6 run that was punctuated by a monster alley-oop slam form Klay to Mcgee right over Pippen. THe Warriors go up by double digits, forcing time a timeout. Jordan tried his best to ignite the Bulls offense, but he himself is shooting poorly, only 4/10, but managed to score Chicago's last 6 pts to help cut the deficit to 6 going into the half, 47-41.



The cold spell conitnued for the Bulls in the 3rd quarter as the Warriors opened up with a 9-2 run to go up by double digits once again. Neither Jordan nor Pippen could get anything going. TO this point, they were a combined 14/33 from the field. The Warriors were starting to miss some makeable threes too in this period and the game did not go copmletely away from the Bulls. Still, the Warriors led by as much as 14 72-58. A late spurt from the Bulls 10-3 run including a 3 from Kerr as shotclock expired helped narrow that leda down to 7, 75-68 heading into the 4th.

With the lead down to single digits, the stage was set for a possible Jordan comeback to win Game 5 and earn the Bulls the title of the GOAT team.

Jordan had rested most of the latter half of the 3rd to help him play the whole 4th period. ANd it appeared to have worked as Jordan was energized to start the 4th. He scored 16 points in the 4th quarter to try and will this game again to victory.

But the Warriors had Kevin Durant.

In a literal scoring duel with Jordan in the 4th quarter, KD played his biggest and most crucial quarter yet in this entire series. KD responded for the Warriors with 17 pts to counter Jordan's 16 in the 4th to help stem the MJ assault.

Still, the Warriors were holding on to a 4 pt lead after the Bulls cut it down to as little as 3 with little over 2 minutes remianing, when the biggest shot of the game was made by..

Draymond Green. Bulls had played great defense in this crucial possession, and blocked a follow up shot by McGee who would still get it back and swing the ball to an open Draymond at the top of the key. He would make the open 3 and that gave the Warriors a 7 pt lead, This proved to be enough cushion as the Bulls would miss an open 3 and commit costly turnovers down the stretch. 2 late 3's from Kukoc would have the Bulls cut it to as little as 5 with 40 secs to go but Kevin Durant would put the final nail in the coffin with a 3-pointer to bring it up to 10 with 16 secs to go.

KD delivers in Game 5 to bring the series back to GS for Game 6.

Jordan had 42 pts 6 rebs 5 assts. Pippen added 21, 7 and 7 but struggled from the field.

Durant led the Warriors with 31 pts 9 rebs 4 assts. Klay had 17. Steph had another poor shooting night, scoring 16 on 3/15 shooting. It was made up by Dray and McGee who both had double figures.

[AIRJ23]

Quote: Originally Posted by Real2KInsider

[inaccuracies].

I’m gonna add two more points to poke gaping holes in those canned arguments.

If dray wasnt an offensive liability, why did Kerr take him out during playoff and finals runs openly because he was an.. offensive liability.

And if players are “running more now” then explain why players in the 60’s or 70’s who either matched or outpaced todays game were getting injured less wearing CHUCKS!! CHUCKS! Put them in today’s shoes and allow them to carry the ball all over without getting called and they’d look like wizards too. lol.

80’s pacing was crazy fast too. They weren’t getting injured in layup lines or landing even though they didn’t have landing zone rules back then to protect them like they do now.

KD didn’t return the season AFTER he tore his Achilles. He missed an entire season. Nique didn’t miss an entire season. He came back the next season. And averaged 30.

I’ll give you one thing, player’s bank accounts sure have evolved. Work ethic, not so much. Or not at all really. You have guys who played in one era and coached another, or coached both eras telling you players today don’t work out or train nearly as hard. But go off. Looking at advanced stat sheets all day I’m sure makes you know better than them.

Again, do your research. Watch the games. You’re wrong on way too many points.

[jd@os]

Heatlifer mentioned a team that should be thrown in the mix more--the 1987 Lakers. That was a fun team to watch. On a side note, Roundball Rock is alright, but I messed with that NBA on CBS theme hard. If 2K24 can have Roundball Rock in the errr, Kobe Era, then throw the CBS theme in the Magic vs Bird Era. That might make me play 2K24.

But speaking of that team that I did watch: they certainly did not walk the ball up the court every possession. Well, many teams didn't walk the ball up the court every possession back then, but hey.

Disclaimer: no one said this, so I'm not trying to prove a point; it just got me wondering:
Like bulls96 is doing with this thread/series, people often play the trade game. I wonder if Draymond isn't just Pippen's position but he is Pippen, could he have led the '94 Bulls like Pippen did? I didn't say he was Pippen--it just got me thinking if he was Pippen, could he have done that.

bulls96: I think when you're done with this series and maybe have time, consider playing as the '17 Warriors in this same series and see what happens. Either way, love what you're doing.

AIRJ23: you owe me a pair of slacks--I spit my tea out when I read the last sentence of your last post.

[jd@os]

^Post #104 that is.

[sirdez]

Some incredible romanticism of 90s basketball going on in this thread.

Very few sports, if any, were of a higher standard 30 years ago, as much as nostalgia would like us to believe that.

[bulls96]

Thanks guys. I am enjoying this thread too!

Sent from my Surface Duo 2 using Tapatalk

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by sirdez

Some incredible romanticism of 90s basketball going on in this thread. Very few sports, if any, were of a higher standard 30 years ago, as much as nostalgia would like us to believe that.

Its nostalgia run amok. In general all sports evolve and as a rule of thumb, teams of today>teams from the past.

One of the reasons why is that sports are becoming more of a science over an art form and this is more apparent in basketball and soccer. I think sports are funner to watch when its more of an art over science. Take for example the midrange jumper. The math tells us thats a bad shot so most of the NBA outside of the top bigmen don't have a midrange game and thats a shame imo. To me personally, Kobe's highlights are more enjoyable to watch over LeBron's or Steph's because of that midrange game he used. Kobe was gonna score but you didn't know how he was going to score.

Then we add the culture of the game on top. Today's players don't need the NBA in the same way players from past eras did. Today's NBA players view it more like a job I think. Thats great for the players, but I do miss the emotion from the past.

But what those two above points contribute to is the special nostalgia we see in the NBA compared to other professional sports. You don't see such passionate debate in the NFL or MLB. And since we will never know the actual outcome of any of these hypothetical discussions, people from both sides can get away with "you don't know basketball" whenever someone disagrees.

I think its simple, in a series played in the 90s rules that favored size/strength the Bulls win because they had more size and strength. If the series used today's rules that prioritize skill the Warriors win because they had more skill.

The rule changes that are always at the heart of these debates were the right changes to make imo. It made the game better. I just hate that shortly after those rule changes analytics started driving the game alongside rule changes that weren't actually rule changes. In that Thinking Basketball video that talks about the evolution of offense, most of those things aren't actual changes to the rulebook, its just a change in how officials call or enforce the rules. And those changes are for the worse.

[jd@os]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

....But what those two above points contribute to is the special nostalgia we see in the NBA compared to other professional sports. You don't see such passionate debate in the NFL or MLB. And since we will never know the actual outcome of any of these hypothetical discussions, people from both sides can get away with "you don't know basketball" whenever someone disagrees. I think its simple, in a series played in the 90s rules that favored size/strength the Bulls win because they had more size and strength. If the series used today's rules that prioritize skill the Warriors win because they had more skill....

I believe Michael Jordan is partly to "blame". When you have someone challenging for GOAT status saying he's chasing that ghost in Chicago...well that ghost retired years ago. Even though baseball is, imo, kind of stuck in the past as a sport, basketball, imo, is kind of stuck in the past on its players. When we discuss top players in the NBA, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Jabbar, Russell, Chamberlain, etc come up--but when we put Lebron in that mix, we're again reminded that a lot of those players are from way back when (and NO, I'm not saying that's my list--that's what I often hear).

Brady, Rodgers, Mahomes--recent. Nadal, Djokovic, Federer--recent. Trout and Ohtani--current. But yes, basketball ghosts keep entering the discussion and seem to keep basketball linked to the past (and no, I'm not saying it's the only sport that does it--just saying it tends to happen).