Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were special, and it would take a certain kind of effort, borderline miraculous, to bring them down in a playoff series. Many NBA teams tried that in the 90s but the best they could do was deal Chicago a loss or two.
In the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, the Indiana Pacers gave the Bulls a good fight. The series went seven games, with the Larry Bird-mentored Pacers proving too tough to dispose of.
An important key for the Pacers at the time was keeping up with the Bulls. After dropping the first two games of the series, the Pacers did the same by winning the next two. However, Game 4 did not come easily. It took a late three-point shot from Reggie Miller to help Indiana tie the series.
With 2.9 seconds left on the game clock and the Pacers trailing by a point, Miller managed to get free from Ron Harper and shove Michael Jordan away to receive a pass from Derrick McKey and put up a 25-foot three-point shot that found its mark.
The Bulls still had a chance with some time remaining on the game clock. Unfortunately, Jordan’s attempt was way off, handing Indiana the win, 96-94.
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Keeping the faith in Miller
Miller was not 100% healthy for that contest. He suffered a sprained ankle in Game 3 and was having a miserable performance at the time. Regardless, Bird kept faith in the UCLA product and was confident that Miller could still be an offensive threat, and that showed in the end game.
“I thought Larry Bird just forgot about me. There's no way I should have been out there for 42 minutes. I thought I was killing us. I was just a stand-alone jump shooter out there,” Miller said via the New York Times .
It would be a dogfight from there, as neither team budged. Come Game 7, it unsurprisingly went down to the wire, with Chicago winning in the end, 88-83.
The do-or-die game could have gone to the Pacers
However, the outcome could have gone either way. Bird admitted that there was one instance where the Pacers could have held off the Bulls. This was a jump ball situation involving Jordan and Rik Smits. Larry realized that had he called a timeout, they could have stolen the tap, scored, and run out the clock.
Instead, Chicago got the ball and tied the score at 77-77. After that, the Bulls took over and won the match. Jordan and company would go on to bag the 1998 NBA title over the Utah Jazz in the Finals.
It would have been interesting if the Pacers had foiled the Bulls' run in 1998. Had things fallen into place, they could have won the franchise’s first NBA title. Further, it would have been a telling mark since it would have deprived the Bulls of a happy ending.
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