Heartstoppers; we take a look at the top 30 playoff moments of pro basketball's last 30 years

In typical fashion, Bird had predicted the win after the Celtics barely staved off elimination in Game 6 of the series. "They had their chance," he sneered. "We're ready to move on."

10. "The Float"

1991 NBA Finals, Game 2

The Bulls, angling for their first NBA title but coming off a Game 1 loss, needed to regain their momentum as talk of a Lakers sweep spread. Michael Jordan, who started the game at point guard, provided that momentum in the fourth quarter when he got a pass at the top of the key and took off just inside the free throw line. He started with the ball in his fight hand, but when A.C. Green and Sam Perkins slid over to block his shot, Jordan switched the ball to his left while in midair, double-clutched, and gently laid the ball off the glass and in. Marv Albert's call ("A spectacular move by Michael Jordan!") on NBC has helped seal this shot as an all-time best.

"It wasn't even one of my best creative shots," said Jordan, who finished the game shooting 15-of-18 and adding 13 assists. Chicago would win four straight games and take their first NBA title.

11. Bulls Threepeat

1993 NBA Finals, Game 6

The first threepeat since the Celtics dynasty was sealed by John Paxson's three-pointer with 5.3 seconds remaining and the Bulls down 98-96. Paxson, who said he set up at the arc "just in case something happened," stopped cold a momentum shift that could have forced a Game 7 in Phoenix.

After Paxson's stunner, Horace Grant sealed the game with 3.9 seconds left by blocking Kevin Johnson's last-ditch shot, and the Bulls were champions again. Mere months later, Michael Jordan would retire, putting the Bulls' budding dynasty on pause.

12. The Three-Point Explosion

1992 NBA Finals, Game 1

The Portland Trail Blazers decided that the best way to defend Michael Jordan was to make him shoot jumpers--not a bad strategy in those days. That is, unless he was going to drill six three-pointers and score 35 points in one half. But the defining moment of the game was the shrug that Jordan directed at Magic Johnson, who was at courtside announcing the game for NBC. It suggested that even Jordan couldn't believe how hot he was, but it was also the gesture of a man playing among boys.

NBA veteran Popeye Jones was in the stands that night. "You couldn't even hear yourself," he recalls. "I haven't heard anything in today's arenas quite like Chicago Stadium during that game."

13. Sick as a Dog

1997 NBA Finals, Game 5

Whether it was because of a food-poisoned room service pizza, the flu, or both, Michael Jordan put on one of his greatest performances while playing in a condition where most of his teammates would never have left the locker room.

Utah's Delta Center, but rather than letting his illness swing the momentum back to the Jazz, Jordan struck with a game for the ages: 33 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in 44 minutes.

What's more memorable than his stat line were the images from the game, from a weighted-down Air appearing to be permanently grounded early, to the ice bag applied to his head at timeouts, to one of the most beautiful snapshots of teammates ever captured: Game in hand, Scottie Pippen practically carried Jordan off the floor, MJ slumped over in Pippen's arms like a sick eight-year-old.