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No. 8: Top 20 moments of the 1991-92 season

Pippen leads Bulls over Bird's Celticson Christmas Day

Regular season game #25 Bulls 121, Boston Celtics 99

December 25, 1991 (Chicago Stadium) — The Bulls were by then a fixture in the big Christmas Day game and would be every year except for one season the rest of the 1990s. In 1991, it was a Michael Jordan/Larry Bird matchup that did not materialize (Jordan scored 14, while Bird had eight), as the Bulls routed the Celtics, 121-99.

Scottie Pippen led all scorers with 27 points, eight assists and four steals as Chicago improved to 21-4 on the year. B.J. Armstrong chipped in with 18 points off the bench, while Horace Grant added 17 points and 12 rebounds.

The game seemed to mark the change that saw the NBA become the Bulls and Jordan’s league. Magic Johnson had retired with the HIV virus and Bird would retire after that coming summer’s Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics. The Bad Boys era was over and the Celtics won 50 games for the last time in almost two decades to come. The Cavs were second in the league in wins, but their fragile group with Brad Daugherty and Mark Price was falling apart and those playoffs would be their last true run.

The Bulls, on the other hand, had the league’s best record by 10 games and began domination of an era, arguably more significantly than any other team in NBA history.

1991-92 Chicago Bulls championship season