#Trash talker quotes series#

Part of what allowed the Pacers to get so close to beating the Bulls was the overall depth they had in the rotation along with a certain attitude that Jordan wasn’t met with often. Jordan did finish that game with two more points than Miller, but he also had five turnovers and a box plus/minus rating barely above zero. In that one game, Miller posted an offensive rating above 150, box plus/minus rating above 12.0, and 28 points to go along with just one turnover. Starting in Game 3, Reggie pushed Michael really hard. Miller also went off on numerous occasions, making it difficult for Jordan and the Bulls to manage on the road.

The Pacers frontcourt pairing of Dale Davis and Rik Smits was very hard for the Bulls to deal with. The Bulls finished off the Pacers at the United Center, but would never come out on top when they traveled to Indianapolis. In that hard fought conference finals series, the home team won every game. The Bulls only came out on top in Game 7 with a five-point win over Miller and the Pacers at home at the United Center.

#Trash talker quotes series#

Not only would the Pacers drag the 1998 conference finals to seven games, the final one of that series was a complete dog fight. The one that he lost came in the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals against the eventual champions Detroit Pistons. There were only three playoff series throughout Jordan’s career that were pushed to seven games, and only two of them resulted in series victories. Miller and the Pacers would be a different story, as they were the first team to push the Bulls to a seven-game series in one that Chicago won since the Knicks did in the 1992 conference semifinals. The Bulls had dispatched of the Hornets and Nets with relative ease, only losing one game combined in those two initial playoff series. It already looked as if the Bulls were going to have a much more difficult matchup on their hands than they had in the first two rounds of the 1998 playoffs, garnering wins over the New Jersey Nets and Charlotte Hornets. That was good for second best in the Eastern Conference, only behind the top seeded Bulls. The Pacers came into this playoff series off a regular season record of 58-24. If nothing else, these two teams were definitely close. Miller also mentioned that he felt like the Pacers were truly the better of the two teams. Part eight of The Last Dance finished up with the Pacers legendary shooting guard Reggie Miller talking about how he was trying to finish off Jordan in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, since he had heard “whispers” about this being his last year. The Pacers pushed the Bulls about as far as anyone did in the conference finals while MJ was at the top of his game. Just like the Knicks throughout the 1990’s, the Pacers did their best to push the Bulls to the brink and finally get to the NBA Finals. But they could never quite get past teams like the New York Knicks or Orlando Magic. The Pacers made two straight conference finals in those seasons where the Bulls were either without MJ completely, or with an out of shape version of him, in 19.

The first time that the Pacers made the conference finals in the 1990’s was in the first year where MJ was playing baseball in the Chicago White Sox minor league organization. The Pacers were a well-known divisional foe of the Bulls, but they didn’t really come on until the first retirement for all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan from his playing days. That was one of the most challenging playoff series that all of those great Bulls teams during the dynasty years would run into.Ī pivotal Game 7 would decide that conference finals at the United Center in Chicago. In the last two parts of the documentary series featuring the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls team “The Last Dance”, a certain spotlight will be shined on that difficult Eastern Conference Finals series against the Indiana Pacers. The Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers met in an instant classic in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, which is soon to be on “The Last Dance”. By Andrew Miller 2 years ago Follow Tweet