The Chicago Bulls faced the Indiana Pacers in the 1998 NBA Eastern Conference Finals and the series lived up to the hype.
Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman went up against Reggie Miller, Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson. The Bulls were the No. 1 seed in the East, while the Pacers were the No. 3 seed.
In ESPN’s “The Last Dance” docuseries, Jordan said he got “a new scratch” every time he played the Pacers and that motivated him to beat them in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finas.
“If I had to pick a team that gave us the toughest time in the East, Indiana was probably the toughest, outside of Detroit,” Jordan said. “They were tough. Every time I’d go in that fu**ing game and come out, I got a new scratch. It became personal with me.”
Miller, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, was confident his Pacers could take down Jordan’s Bulls.
“We all looked at the Bulls as the standard model of success,” Miller said in The Last Dance. “They were considered the best at that time, but we felt — I feel to this day — we were the better team. The whole thing is, there was whispers that this was going to be Mike’s last year. So I think a perfect storm was brewing. And in my mind, I was thinking, ‘All right, this is it, you’re gonna retire Michael Jordan.’”
The Bulls won Games 1 and 2 at home to take a 2-0 series lead, but the Pacers responded by winning Games 3 and 4 in Indiana.
Miller hit a game-winning 3-pointer in Game 4 with 0.7 seconds left in regulation. The Pacers had all the momentum going into Game 5 and some NBA pundits thought Jordan and the Bulls were in trouble.
However, Chicago won Game 5 in blowout fashion by a final score of 106-87.
Indiana then won Game 6, 92-89, setting up a Game 7 at the United Center.
Game 7 was spellbinding from start to finish. The Pacers outscored the Bulls 27-19 in the first quarter, but Chicago answered by outscoring Indiana 29-18 in the second quarter.
The Bulls won the third quarter 21-20 and the fourth quarter 19-18 to win Game 7 by a final score of 88-83.
Jordan finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 42 minutes, while Miller put up 22 points in 40 minutes.
“We had the better team, I really do believe that,” Miller said in The Last Dance. “But championship DNA and championship experience really rose to the forefront in Game 7 for Chicago.”
The Bulls advanced to the 1998 NBA Finals, beating the Utah Jazz in six games for their sixth championship. Jordan won his sixth Finals MVP and retired from the NBA.
Arguably the greatest basketball player ever, Jordan won five MVPs, six championships, six Finals MVPs, 10 scoring titles, three steals titles and one Defensive Player of the Year Award with the Bulls.
Chicago went 6-0 in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice in the Jordan era.