Chicago Bulls: 3 players that dominated Scottie Pippen in the playoffs

2. Shaquille O’Neal, Center

The last two names on this list did a lot of damage to the playoff record of Pippen while they were both members of the Lakers, and he was competing with the Rockets and Blazers in the Western Conference. Both the Rockets and Blazers were solid teams out West during the 1990’s, and the former of the two won back-to-back NBA Championships in the middle part of the decade.

But the long-time superstar center Shaquille O’Neal gave Pippen some trouble both as a member of the Orlando Magic, and with the Lakers. Shaq and Scottie split the 30 regular season meetings between the two of them at 15 wins a piece. But Shaq held the edge in the 27 playoff games between the two, with a record of 17-10.

Pippen’s first loss to Shaq in the playoffs came while Jordan was playing baseball in 1995, and the Bulls fell short to the Magic. Then, Pippen and the Bulls would upend the Magic in the 1996 playoffs. But Pippen had multiple playoff series losses to Shaq and the Lakers in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, as a member of both the Rockets and Blazers.

Shaq averaged an impressive 26.3 points per game, 12.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 0.7 steals, and 2.0 blocks. He even shot just shy of 55.0 percent from the free-throw line in those 27 playoff games against Pippen (better than his career average of 52.7 percent). Meanwhile, Pippen averaged 16.9 points per game, 9.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.9 steals, and 0.9 blocks, against Shaq in the playoffs.