LANDOVER, Md. - There was no reason for the Bulls to give their best effort in this game. They had already set the NBA single-season win record and had reached the milestone 70-win mark. They were playing on the road, so they didn't have a home crowd to fire them up. The playoffs were starting in a few days, and that's when the games really started to matter.
Perhaps its a microcosm of their remarkable season that Chicago sent four of its five starters out at the start of the regular-season finale against Washington. Led by their hyper-competetive leader Michael Jordan, the Bulls never let off the throttle, never took any opponent lightly, never took a day off.
The Bulls' 103-93 victory was not very remarkable in itself, just one of 72 they had that season. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Toni Kukoc all started, but nobody played more than 30 minutes. But even in limited playing time, their dominance showed. Jordan scored 26 points in 24 minutes, Pippen scored 20 in 30 minutes, and Rodman grabbed 11 rebounds in 24 minutes. But the Bulls showed how dominant they could be, easily beating the Bullets even though their stars played barely half the game.
In retrospect, it's easy to see the formula the Bulls' roster used to make a record-breaking season. Offensively, few in the game have ever been as dynamic as Jordan, and Pippen was a legitimate star who fit perfectly as a second banana. Kukoc, Steve Kerr, and Ron Harper provided just enough outside scoring to keep teams honest with Jordan and Pippen. Defensively, though, is where they excelled. Jordan deservedly made nine all-defensive teams, but Pippen might have been the best defender in the league that year. The addition of Rodman gave them outstanding low-post defense and a historically efficient rebounder.
Add it all up, and you had a team that went 72-10, an .878 winning percentage. They won at almost the same clip in the playoffs, going 15-3 to cruise to their first of three straight titles.
HONORABLE MENTION
April 21, 1951: TORONTO - Bill Barilko of the Maple Leafs scored at 2:53 of overtime in game 5 to give the Leafs their fourth Stanley Cup in five years. Every game of the final series against the Canadiens went to overtime. The goal was Barilko's last in the NHL, as he disappeared during a fishing trip that summer, with the wreckage from the plane being discovered 11 years later.
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