MJ fans love to talk big shit about how MJ he never went to a game 7 in the finals, but when he had the inferior team, he tended to go down easy (thread)

1985: Goes down 2-0, drops 35/8/7 on 12/26 shooting in game 3. Woolridge has 28/4/3 on 10/18 shooting. Total help: 74 pts.

Goes 6/16 in game 4, does score 29 off of TWENTY free throw attempts. Dailey goes 7/13 and Woolridge 6/13 but only have 27 and 4 fta combined. Bulls lose because Cummings, Moncrief, and Pressy drop 72 combined. Total help: 68 pts

1986: Swept by the best team in the league

Scores 19 on 8/18 shooting and only 3 fta in game 3 but is outscored by Paxson (23) and Corzine (20) in addition to McHale (31) and Ainge (20) for the Celtics. Tied for the 5th most points in an elimination game. Less field goals that Dave Corzine! That’s some 2011 type shit

1987: Swept again by the Celtics. Goes 9/30 in game 3 but still scores 30 due to 14 fta and grabs 11 boards. As MJ stans like to say, at least he went down shooting. Nonetheless completely outplayed by Bird (32 on 11/21 shooting, 14 boards). Total help: 64 points, but he shot 30%

1988: After MJ wins MVP and DPOY, the 3rd seed Bulls face the 2nd seed Pistons in the ECSF. The Bulls tie the series at 1-1 behind MJ’s efficient 36 and 31 from Sam Vincent! MJ then shoots 8/20 in game 3 and without much help gets blown out by 22. In game 5 MJ and Pip shoot 50%..

..for 23 and 15 respectively but only get 39 points from their teammates. Bulls lose by 19 and go down 3-1. MJ gets a ton of help in game 5 but shoots 10-22 for only 25 points. Oakley has 19 and 15, Grant has 20. Total help: 70 points. Team effort by Detroit, Bulls lose by 7.

At this point, MJ has lost 4 playoff series and has only won 1 elimination game. In 1989, Detroit is now the number one seed, but the two teams go back and forth for the first 4 games, with MJ dropping 46 in a game 3 win. However, in game 5, he shoots just 8 times and scores 18..

..in a 9 point loss. He is outscored by Craig Hodges, Vinnie Johnson, and Mark Aguirre as the Bulls fall down 3-1. Now technically this was not an elimination game, but it has to be mentioned since MJ took only eight shots, three less than LeBron in game 4 of the 2011 finals

In game 6, MJ has a good game with 32 on 13/26 shooting but Pippen has the notorious migraines. Bill Cartwright goes 1-8. Total help: 62 points. Isiah Thomas drops 33 and the Pistons win by 9, going on to sweep the Lakers in the finals and win their first of two b2b titles

In 1990, the two teams meet for an ECF rematch. It is the third straight year they have met in the playoffs. MJ is looking for his first finals appearance at age 27. He has 34 in a game 1 loss and 47/42 in game 3/4 wins after going down 0-2. After a lackluster 22 points in game 5

, MJ shoots 11/20 in game 6 for 29 points and gets 19 from Pippen and Hodges and 14 rebounds from Grant. Total help: 80 points. This is only the second time in 6 years that he has forced another game after being on the brink of elimination. In game 7 he has a solid 31/8/9 on 48%

I stated that Pippen had migraines in game 6 the previous year. This is incorrect. He had them in 1990 and went 1/10 from the field for only two points in game 7. I can’t blame either the 1989 or 1990 game 6/7 loss on MJ, but he deserves blame him for both game 5 losses