Jordan Teammate Joins Complaining While Bulls Down 40

On Tuesday, the question was whether the Miami Heat would beat the Chicago Bulls. On Wednesday, it changed back to whether the Heat would beat the 1996 Chicago Bulls, whose guard-turned-TNT-announcer Steve Kerr actually complained about the refereeing with the Bulls behind by 41 points. The Heat’s average playoff score is now a 99-85 win, three points better than the 98-87 margin averaged in the playoffs by the 1996 Bulls team that went 72-10 during the season.

In all sports, point differential is one of the best predictors of future wins and losses. Teams like this year’s Bulls who have winning records despite being outscored (won five of nine playoff games by being outscored 95-100) almost always begin to lose more games. 

Bulls	Opponents	Playoffs	Heat	Opponents
89	106	Gm1	100	87
90	82	Gm2	98	86
79	76	Gm3	104	91
142	134	Gm4	88	77
91	110	Gm5	86	93
92	95	Gm6	115	78
99	93	Gm7
93	86	Gm8
78	115	Gm9
95	100	Ave.	99	85

After stunning Miami in Game 1, the Bulls Nate Robinson and then the Heats Dwyane Wade were both knocked to the ground hard in the opening moments, and the series took a nasty edge. The Bulls stayed close for almost 20 minutes, but Norris Cole eventually hit a three-pointers on Nate Robinson to give the Heat a double digit lead (52-41), which started a 55-17 run during which two Bulls were ejected.

Toward the end of the run, Chris Anderson rejected a Bulls shot with the Heat up 91-56. As players tussled and argued, Joakim Noah was ejected, and Taj Gibson joined him after drawing two technicals and apparently cursing on his way out. Kerr joined the critism from his TNT microphone, saying “I don’t blame Gibson.”

Allen, one of the greatest free throw shooters in the history of the NBA, then sank four consecutive free throws to make it 97-56. The Bulls got back within 40, but two free throws by Anderson, a lay-up by Cole, and then a layup and another free throw by energy man Anderson made it 104-58 with 8:27 to play.

The stars were able to rest up as the Bulls tightened the final slighly to 115-76, but with another blow out win, the Heat is once again looking as hard to beat as the Bulls.  The following is a list of the Bulls playoff games in 1996, which included three losses.

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Bulls 1996	Score	Opponents
Miami Heat	112	91
Miami Heat	106	75
Miami Heat	112	91
New York Knicks	91	84
New York Knicks	91	80
New York Knicks	99	102
New York Knicks	94	91
New York Knicks	94	81
Orlando Magic	121	83
Orlando Magic	93	88
Orlando Magic	86	67
Orlando Magic	106	101
Seattle Supersonics	107	90
Seattle Supersonics	92	88
Seattle Supersonics	108	86
Seattle Supersonics	86	107
Seattle Supersonics	78	89
Seattle Supersonics	87	75
Average	98	87