The memories are vivid. Only Michael Jordan could score 55 points in a game and have a pass be the deciding factor.
That is exactly what happened on March 28, 1995, when the Chicago Bulls and his Airness faced the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Jordan scored 20 points in the first quarter, hitting nine of his 11 shots. Still, the Knicks managed to take a 34-31 lead after the first 12 minutes.
The Knicks built the lead to 56-50 at halftime. They managed to keep in front despite Jordan adding another 15 points in the second quarter. He was 14=of-19 from the field as the MSG crowd knew it was in for something incredible.
Jordan hit half of his six shots in the quarter, including two treys. Jordan made four free throws in the third on his way to 49 points. The teams were tied up at 82.
Jordan started the fourth quarter on the bench and entered the game with 6:50 remaining. Patrick Ewing scored 27 of his 36 points in the second half, as the Knicks managed to keep pace despite Jordan’s amazing performance.
Jordan scored his final basket on a jumper for a 111-109 lead with 25.8 seconds left. John Starks tied the game with a pair of free throws. Everyone had to know who was going to take the shot … except His Airness fooled the Knicks and the crowd.
In the huddle the Bull staff points out that the Knicks have permanently changed their defensive thinking. After letting Starks (and such others as Greg Anthony, Hubert Davis and Derek Harper) be used and abused for most of the game, New York has sent Ewing over the last three times Jordan probed the Knick defense. Jackson and his aides remind Jordan that there will be a vacuum in the middle into which a teammate might slip.
Jordan dribbles to precisely the same spot from which he sank his last shot, the right elbow of the foul lane. Starks tracks him all the way. Sure enough, Ewing rushes over. “I’d be lying if I said I was coming out to pass the ball,” Jordan will say later. “I was coming out to score. But then Patrick came over to help….”
It’s an article of basketball faith that a player who’s double-teamed finds the open man. But Jordan has been so individually mesmerizing to this point that his pass to Wennington, who looks like a leper alone under the basket, seems like a revelation.
From Jackson’s vantage point it looks as if Jordan has pulled an Amazing Kreskin, bending his pass around the onrushing Ewing. Starks has been so fooled by Jordan’s sudden pass that, after biting on another fake, he stumbles, spraining his left ankle. From the Garden floor Starks’s view must have been obscured; following the game he believes Perdue has scored the dunk that wins the game 113-111.
He actually found a local guy, Bill Wennington, with a pass and the St. John’s product connected from in-close to give the Bulls a 113-111 victory. It was the lone basket in the game for Wennington, who came off the bench and played a total of five minutes.
Overall, Jordan was 21-of-37 from the field, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc. He hit 9-of-10 free throws and had four rebounds and two assists, one coming on the game-winning hoop.
B.J. Armstrong and Scottie Pippen combined for 35 points, the only other Bulls in double figures. In addition to Ewing, the Knicks had four players in double figures, including Anthony Mason, who came off the bench to score 10 points in the loss.
Give the boxscore a look here.