The Numbers: Chicago Bulls Win 15 Straight at Home

by Kelly Scaletta

On May 21, 1991, The Chicago Bulls were rolling, and not even their rival Detroit Pistons could get in their way.

Michael Jordan led the way with 35 points as the Bulls took care of business.

The Bulls had only lost one game through the first two rounds of the NBA Playoffs, and that was a road game to the Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to that, they had a three-game sweep over the New York Knicks. (The opening round was still a five-game series then.)

In 1990, they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Detroit Pistons but won all three home games. They took out the Philadelphia Sixers 4-1 during the semis and the Milwaukee Bucks 3-1 in the opening round. In both cases, the only loss came on the road.

Ergo, the last time the Bulls had lost at home in the playoffs was Game 6 of the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals. In all, that amounted to 15 straight playoff wins at home over a span of nearly two years.

The Bulls would go on to sweep the series over the Pistons, so they didn’t get a chance to extend their streak until they faced Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. But that’s when it ended as Chicago fell 93-91 in Game 1.

According to Basketball-Reference, the streak stood in the record books until May 20 2018, when the Golden State Warriors extended their playoffs home streak to 16 games with a win over the Houston Rockets, (who would snap that streak two nights later).

And just in case you’re wondering, the longest current active streak belongs to the Toronto Raptors, who at six games have a long way to go in order to catch the Bulls or the Warriors.

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