LEADING BASKETBALL HISTORIAN: Heat-Bulls Was The Greatest NBA Regular Season Game Ever Played
The Bulls won and snapped the Heat's 27-game winning streak.
You had the underdog Bulls playing without their two best players against the most famous NBA team since Jordan's Bulls. You had the best player in 20 years at the peak of his powers. You had a national TV audience and unparalleled stakes: Miami approaching an unapproachable record, the smell of history looming over everything, real greatness in the air. You had an intensely proud Bulls team hoping to turn that game into a street fight (1980s basketball, reincarnated), as well as a genius defensive coach who understood exactly how to beat Miami (or at the very least, make them sweat out no. 28). And you had Chicago's spectacular crowd, one of the few old-school NBA fan bases left that (a) understood the stakes, (b) would never sell their tickets on StubHub to Miami fans, and (c) knew from experience exactly how to affect such a game.
I can't remember watching an NBA regular-season game that felt like a Game 7 before.
Interesting.