"I was backing off him saying, 'You can't hit that'" - Drexler on how he provoked Jordan to go off in the 'Shrug Game'

Michael Jordan was great at many things during his prime, but shooting it exceptionally well from deep wasn't really a prominent part of his arsenal. Instead, MJ relied on his mid-range shot and post-up game to get buckets, but occasionally, he would punish opponents from the outside.

His most iconic shooting performance came in Game 1 of the 1992 Finals when Michael got hot and dropped six three-pointers in the first half at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers. Clyde Drexler , who was his match-up, went into the contest with the game plan to provoke Jordan and force him to take outside bombs, but the strategy backfired.

"I was backing off him saying, 'You can't hit that,'" Portland's star admitted via SLAM Magazine.

Good idea, but an unfortunate outcome

For his career, Michael was a below-average shooter from deep, hitting them at a 32.7% clip. Jordan had a pretty inefficient and low-volume season from downtown in the 1991-92 season. MJ shot 100 three-pointers but hit only 27 of them for a round of 27%.

Looking at the stats, coach Rick Adelman and Drexler's decision to let Michael shoot rather than slash and get to his hot spots was a good one. However, underestimating the GOAT in the Finals was ultimately a bad idea.

Michael would start raining in one after another, much to the delight of the Chicago crowd. After hitting his sixth consecutive triple near the end of the first half, MJ could only shrug his shoulders while looking at Magic Johnson in the broadcast booth, giving the contest an iconic nickname: 'The Shrug Game.'

Related: Larry Jordan talks about the perks of being MJ's brother: "I would`ve lost my license except the district attorney was a big North Carolina and Michael Jordan fan"

In the end, it was just a hot night

Michael would cool off in the second half and miss all four of his attempts from deep, but he would still score 39 points and dish out 11 assists to get the 89-122 blowout victory. The Bulls would go on to win it all in six games for their second straight championship, as MJ got named Finals MVP after posting 35.8 PPG, 6.5 APG, and 4.8 RPG on 52.6% from the field and 42.9% from deep.

Jordan would end the series shooting 12-28 from behind the line, hitting the same number of triples in the rest of the Finals as in the first half of Game 1. This is good enough proof that it was a pretty flukey outing for #23.

Related: "Clyde is somewhat of a mirror of me" - Michael Jordan gave Clyde Drexler his flowers in 1992