My friend Nathaniel of Someone Still Loves You, Alberto Riveron fame was amazed by this bracket and how stacked it is. I do think the Russell Bracket is more loaded than this one, but MJ's is pretty top heavy. And we're going to lose a legendary team in the first round thanks to the matchup I couldn't wait for (but amazingly, the random number generator pushed this bracket to the end).
As a reminder, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court being decided by best overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. And the series I most wanted is the one on top. Let's get to it.
'92 Chicago Bulls (82-22) vs '13 Miami Heat (82-23)
Game 1: @ '92 Bulls 113, '13 Heat 103 (CHI leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '92 Bulls 109, '13 Heat 94 (CHI leads 2-0)
Game 3: @ '13 Heat 108, '92 Bulls 93 (CHI leads 2-1)
Game 4: @ '13 Heat 111, '92 Bulls 102 (Series tied 2-2)
Game 5: @ '92 Bulls 102, '13 Heat 93 (CHI leads 3-2)
Game 6: @ '13 Heat 88, '92 Bulls 82 (Series tied 3-3)
Game 7: '13 Heat 107, @ '92 Bulls 100 (MIA wins 4-3)
My heart sank when I hit "Play again" for Game 7. Michael was destroying everyone in the first couple games to put the Bulls up 2-0, then as soon as we went back to Miami it's like LeBron flipped a switch. He went off in Games 3 and 4 and was more his usual self the rest of the way. A 22-9-10 led the way in Game 7 for the Heat, and Ray Allen shooting 5-8 from deep certainly didn't hurt. Chris Bosh was also a pretty big factor for Miami in this series. MJ did go down swinging (32 in Game 7).
'93 Chicago Bulls (72-29) vs '56 Philadelphia Warriors (52-30)
Game 1: @ '93 Bulls 115, '56 Warriors 106 (CHI leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '93 Bulls 124, '56 Warriors 102 (CHI leads 2-0)
Game 3: '93 Bulls 106, @ '56 Warriors 86 (CHI leads 3-0)
Game 4: '93 Bulls 117, @ '56 Warriors 101 (CHI wins 4-0)
Arizin and Johnston did the best they could, Trevor. Arizin put up 31 in Game 2, but Michael was just too much for this team. I got thrown for a bit of a loop after Game 1 not really expecting the Warriors to get that good a shot in at the Bulls. My guess is '92 MJ went back to his own time pissed about losing Game 7 to the Heat and vowed to destroy the Warriors to get another shot at them (and that may have been the motivation behind the Charles Smith Game and the 55 point game against Phoenix in the Finals that year).
'84 Boston Celtics (77-28) vs '90 Detroit Pistons (74-28)
Game 1: @ '84 Celtics 118, '90 Pistons 100 (BOS leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '84 Celtics 102, '90 Pistons 91 (BOS leads 2-0)
Game 3: '84 Celtics 89, @ '90 Pistons 88 (BOS leads 3-0)
Game 4: '84 Celtics 124, @ '90 Pistons 111 (BOS wins 4-0)
As a Bulls fan, I get a sick sense of satisfaction seeing the Bad Boys get swept again. From a standpoint of what happened... holy crap Robert Parish. He had a monster Game 1, then picked up the winning dunk with 17 seconds left in Game 3 before helping Larry Bird and Kevin McHale finish things off in Game 4.
'95 Houston Rockets (62-42) vs '87 Los Angeles Lakers (80-20)
Game 1: @ '87 Lakers 114, '95 Rockets 104 (LAL leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '87 Lakers 128, '95 Rockets 111 (LAL leads 2-0)
Game 3: '87 Lakers 120, @ '95 Rockets 100 (LAL leads 3-0)
Game 4: @ '95 Rockets 103, '87 Lakers 98 (LAL leads 3-1)
Game 5: @ '87 Lakers 108, '95 Rockets 103 (LAL wins 4-1)
Clyde Drexler tried to carry the Rockets for the first three games since Hakeem wasn't his usual dominant self (probably have to give some credit to Kareem there), plus I bet this Lakers team had some extra motivation from getting beat up by the Rockets the year before. Hakeem did finally show up for Game 5, but it was too late; Clyde was falling back to average and Magic had been stellar all series long.
To see the updated bracket, click here.
One round down, 5 more to go. A lot of great teams have already fallen, but only one can claim the prize. I'm taking a break for the weekend, but next week since every team will have had at least some "rest", we can get going again.
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