Chicago Bulls: 3 best moments from ‘The Last Dance’ finale night

2. The Bulls were pushed to the brink in 1998

The 1993 Eastern Conference Finals between the Bulls and New York Knicks saw the former pushed to the brink. But other than that and a few of the playoff series throughout the 1997-98 season, the Bulls usually dominated the competition in the Eastern Conference throughout the great dynasty teams of the 1990’s.

Jordan and the Bulls had a difficult time in 1998 in the playoffs starting with the Pacers in the conference finals. Hall-of-Fame sharpshooting guard Reggie Miller and the Pacers drove the Bulls to the edge in a classic seven-game series in the conference finals. The Bulls got a key Game 7 win at home at the United Center in close fashion to manage to make it through to the finals.

But this finals run came with it’s fair share of struggles. The Pacers would be a notable foe that the Bulls wouldn’t be able to compete with from then on out. Even the Knicks were better than the Bulls the following season, in 1998-99.

If not for a set of massive games from MJ in the finals, only one game of which he scored less than 28 points, the Bulls might not have received that sixth title of the 1990’s. Jordan delivered a sparkling 45-point effort, including that legendary game-winning shot in the dying seconds of Game 6, to give the Bulls that elusive sixth ring.

Head coach Phil Jackson was still able to do a brilliant job of keeping this Bulls team together, but it wouldn’t come without showing its flaws.

The wear and tear of the Bulls did start to show up a bit during the 1998 playoff run. Jordan, forward Scottie Pippen, and the rest of this Bulls cast that spoke out on the last two parts of The Last Dance noted that fact. They acknowledged the difficult test that the Jazz brought to the table in 1997 and 1998 and the Pacers just in 1998.