Chicago Bulls: Ranking the 5 best Christmas Day games in team history
By Ian Levy
2. Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks, 1992
Finally, we've reached the Michael Jordan portion of the list. For all his historic exploits, Jordan only played in six Christmas Day games — all six were wins — but not all were noteworthy performances, and he only scored 30 or more in three of them. Statistically, this was his best-ever Christmas game.
In an 89-77 win over the hated Knicks, Jordan put up 42 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. He was relentless attacking the basket and finished the game with 16 free throw attempts. The Bulls also got a sterling performance from Pippen who added 16 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks.
All-in-all, it was a smothering defensive performance from the Bulls who forced 27 turnovers and held the Knicks to 37.8 percent from the field. Patrick Ewing finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds but was 6-of-18 from the field and piled up 5 turnovers and 5 fouls.
The Bulls would meet the Knicks again in the playoffs, eliminating them 4-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals en route to the final championship of their first Jordan-era three-peat.