1986 Boston Celtics vs. 1996 Chicago Bulls

[The Lone Drinker]

86' Celtics were 67-15.

96' Bulls were 72-10.

Home court advantage goes to the Bulls.

Game 1 would go to the Bulls, but it'd be a close one. Air Jordan would hit the game winner most likely. Him or Pippen, since Bird and company would probably be triple teaming MJ in the last few seconds.

Celtics would come back in game 2 in another close game, this time Larry Bird is the hero scoring the winning three point shot. And they'd come back just as strong in game 3 beating the Bulls by around ten points or so.

The Bulls would even things up in game 4 however but it'd be another close one.

Game 5 would easily go to the Celtics, beating the Bulls around 15. But the Bulls would come back strong in game 6 this time blowing the Celtics out of the building by 10-15.

And the seventh and deciding game would go to the Bulls in another close game, and the winning shot would be scored by Michael Jordan.

[Kid Robb]

No one could have taken four games from that Bulls team, with Pippen and Rodman at their best, and Jordan at his always brilliant.

[ct2k]

96 bulls fo sho

[stima]

1986 Celtics by far. When the Bulls went on their run the NBA was watered down. Not taking anything away from Jordan, but its the truth. Jordan is probably the greatest of all time but that doesn't mean his team was.

Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish in the front court. Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson in the backguard. Then they got guys like Bill Walton coming off the bench. The Celtics team was stacked that year, So many guys from that team have their numbers hanging in the rafters of the Boston Guard (Bird, McHale, Parish, Maxwell, DJ and I am sure there is more) Plus Bird, McHlale and Parish are all Hall of Famers while Jordan is the only "sure" Hall Of Famer on the Bulls that year, possibly Pippen aswell.

[Bigg Mike]

96' Bulls alone for Jordan.

86' Celtics, great team, but no one would be able to contain Jordan.

Bulls in 6.

[VonErich Lives]

Tough call...

I'm going to say Celts in 7. Simply because the only postion I can think of where player v. players the bulls would win is Jordan v. Ainge, which would be compensated by the Celts being able to contain ever other player on the team, plus the Celts had a better bench.

Plus, the same way Jordan could carry the Bulls, Bird could carry the Celts when needed... the difference being Bird had a batter team around in 86

[Kid Robb]

Early in his career when he was with the Pistons, Rodman defended 2, 3 and 4, including guys like Bird out on the outside. I'd back him to at least be competitive with Bird, he had a decent record against him the times they went up against each other in the late 80's.

Leaves McHale and Parish against Longley and Pippen, tough one. Kukoc off the bench would be a tough matchup for either of them. Guess you could argue the same about Walton though.

Bulls would have the backcourt, Jordan and Harper, or Jordan and Pippen if they went taller. Michael didn't have to carry that 96 team as much as he did the other two, they were pretty even all round. Even the "average" bench players like Buechler, Kerr, Wennington etc were more than serviceable during the season, less so during the Sonics finals.