The career of "basketball god" Michael Jordan has not been smooth, although he has shown the ultimate personal performance in his rookie season, selected to the best team second team and all-Star team, which can be described as the peak of his debut, but the Bulls lineup is not deep enough, resulting in him returning to the playoffs for many years.
However, in the face of the two mountains of Celtics and Pistons, Jordan did not leave the team, did not choose to take shortcuts, but let himself evolve again and again, making himself a stronger player, when the team's lineup depth matched his strength, they rushed out of the East and defeated the Lakers led by the Magicians to win the championship.
From the 1990-1991 season to the 1997-1998 season, Jordan led the Bulls to 6 championships in these 8 seasons, one season he did not play the playoffs due to retirement, and one season when the Bulls he led were eliminated by the Magic led by O'Neal, which was the only playoff exit after Jordan won the championship, how did O'Neal and Jordan perform at that time?
In the 1994-1995 season, when there were only 17 games left, Jordan announced his comeback after nearly two years of absence from the NBA, and in these 17 games, although Jordan averaged 26.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game, his shooting percentage of 41.1%, the lowest shooting rate of his career, shows that there was no systematic training and playing in the past two years, which made Jordan's body rusty, which laid the groundwork for the playoff loss.
Jordan returned and led the Bulls to win 13 of 17 games, and at the end of the season, the Bulls finished with a record of 47 wins and 35 losses, entering the playoffs as the fifth in the East, they were in the second half of the playoffs, and did not have home advantage, but because of Jordan, everything was possible.
Jordan in the No. 45 jersey wasn't the strongest Jordan in the first round of the playoffs, but still averaged 32.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2 steals per game, shooting 49.5 percent from the field, leading the Bulls to an easy 3-1 (3-5 game format in the first round of the playoffs).
In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Bulls' opponents were the Magic led by O'Neal and Hardaway, two young talents, and the Magicians achieved a 57-25 record in the regular season, ranking first in the East, and they eliminated the Celtics 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs.
In the first game, Jordan shot 8-of-22, only had 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, shooting only 36.4% from the field, and he also made 2 fatal mistakes at key moments, resulting in the Bulls eventually losing 91-94 to the Magic, this game the Bulls could have made the start on the road, but Jordan made two mistakes in the 18 seconds before the final game, resulting in the Bulls losing. After the game, Nick Anderson was schadenfreude: "The 45 is not the 23, the previous 23 was like the space shuttle, it could fly, but the 45 could not fly." ”
In this game, O'Neal shot 7 of 11, cut 26 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block data, shooting 63.6%, his scoring and rebounding statistics are the highest in both teams, shooting the third highest shooting rate, the performance is very good.
In the second game, Jordan risked being fined to change back into the No. 23 jersey, he shot a game-high 38 points on 17-of-30 shooting, shooting 56.7%, grabbed 7 rebounds, delivered 3 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks, and performed very well on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, leading the Bulls to beat the Magic 104-94.
O'Neal didn't perform well in this game, shooting 6-of-15 from the field, shooting just 40 percent from the field, with 25 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block, as well as five turnovers and five fouls.
In the third game, Jordan, who returned home, still showed a wonderful performance: 15 of 31 shots, cut 40 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block, the score was the highest in the game, shooting 48.4%, which was efficient for a guard, but the Magic had 5 people scored in double figures, and the Bulls lost to the Magic 101-110.
O'Neal shot 10-of-18, 28 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks, shooting 55.6% from the field, he had excellent performances on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, plus Nick Anderson was also very efficient to cut 20+, and 3 teammates scored in double figures, and finally the Magic won the third game and regained home advantage.
In the fourth game, Jordan's shooting was not good, 9 of 21 shots, with 26 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals, shooting only 42.9%, but the Bulls had 4 people score in double figures, and finally won the game 106-95, and the two sides returned to the same running line.
In this game, O'Neal was badly beaten by pinch hits, he played 43 minutes with only 10 shots, hit 5 hits, and had 17 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 block, shooting 50% from the field. He found his teammates in time for a pinch and delivered nine assists, with Grant being one of the beneficiaries, scoring 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, making him the highest-scoring player on the team.
In the battle of Tenno Mountain, Jordan played well on the road, shooting 15 of 28 shots, cutting a game-high 39 points, and 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, shooting a shooting rate of 53.6%, but Pippen, Kukoc, Armstrong, Harper and many other teammates shot less than 40%, while the Magic had 3 people scored in double figures, and finally the Bulls lost the Battle of Tennosan 95-103.
O'Neal's shooting was not good in this game, only 7 of 20 shots, shooting only 35% from the field, he scored 23 points, but grabbed 22 rebounds, also delivered 4 assists and 5 blocks, in addition to the poor feel, the rest of the performance is very good.
In the sixth game, Jordan shot 8-of-19 and had 24 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks, shooting only 42.1% from the field. O'Neal shot 11 of 21 from the field, shooting 52.4%, cut 27 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 1 block of the full data, the Magic team had 3 people scored in double figures, and finally beat the Bulls 108-102 to reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
In this series, Jordan averaged 31 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, shooting 47.7% from the field. His average of points per game and steals per game are the highest in both teams, averaging only O'Neal in blocks per game, averaging the fifth highest rebounds per game, shooting 47.7% of the shooting rate is also relatively high for a guard, if it is other players, such a performance is already excellent, unfortunately he is Michael Jordan, his efficiency and stability are not as good as before.
Coupled with the Bulls' small number of scorers, 5 of the top seven players per game are Magic players, Pippen although he averaged 19 points per game, but the shooting rate was only 40.9%, and Kukoc, who performed eye-catching in the last round, was suddenly muted, and a variety of unfavorable factors led to the Bulls becoming the background board of the Magic team.
O'Neal averaged 24.3 points, 13.2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks in 6 games, shooting 48.4 percent from the field, as a big center, his shooting percentage was only 0.7 percent higher than Jordan's, obviously not high enough, but he performed comprehensively, scoring, rebounding, assisting, stealing and blocking, and he led the Magic to give Jordan his only exit after the god.
The highly competitive Jordan did not rest long after being eliminated, he trained earlier than usual, and actively contacted his teammates to participate in joint training, he slowly found his form in training again and again, and gradually found a tacit understanding with his teammates, the next year they got the anti-heaven data of 72 wins and 10 losses, and swept the Magic team in the Eastern Conference Finals to complete revenge, defeated supersonics in the Finals to win the championship, and started the second trip to the triple crown. The real strong is not that they will not fail, but how to take back what they have lost after failure, and Jordan is such a strong person.