Apr. 29, 1990 – Chicago Stadium
The Bucks and Bulls didn’t do battle in the postseason all that often during Jordan’s decorated career, meeting just twice in total.
The first of those came in the form of a 3-1 Bucks success during Jordan’s rookie season in 1985, while the latter came in 1990 when the Bulls were on the cusp of taking the jump to becoming one of the NBA’s all-time great dynasties.
Jordan’s best performance in that latter first round series likely came in Game 2, when he put on a complete performance, stuffing the stat sheet to best the Bucks.
Just a two-point game with over 80 seconds remaining, and with the Bucks looking at a real chance to secure an early split heading back to Milwaukee, Jordan stepped up to deliver the goods for his team.
With an and-1 followed by a beautiful baseline jumper, Jordan opened up a significant gap on the scoreboard late on, setting the Bulls up for a 109-102 win, and eventual 3-1 series success.
Individually, Jordan finished that game with 36 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds, and five steals in 44 minutes of action. In other words, he did everything his team needed from him to secure the victory.