From Elias: The 76ers defeated the Bulls, 79-78, and won their opening-round series in six games. Philadelphia was only 29-for-73 (.397) from the field and was out-rebounded, 56-33. No other team in NBA history won a playoff game in which it recorded a field-goal percentage under 40.0 percent and had at least 20 fewer rebounds than its opponent.

It was the third game in the series in which the winning team scored fewer than 80 points, tying a shot clock-era record. There were also three such games in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals between the Pistons and Pacers, a series Detroit won in six games.

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: Luol Deng took game honors with 24 points, making 10 baskets including a four-pack of three-pointers, as the Bulls fought off elimination with a 77-69 victory over the 76ers. Deng didn’t get to the foul line all night, which is just as well; he might have caught whatever was afflicting his teammates, who made only 36.4 percent of their free-throw attempts (four of 11). That’s the fourth-lowest one-team free-throw percentage (minimum: 10 free-throw attempts) in a playoff game in the NBA’s shot-clock era; the other three teams to shoot that poorly from the line all had either Wilt Chamberlain or Shaquille O’Neal on the team, and none of those teams won the game.

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: The 76ers have the Bulls on the brink of elimination after winning three straight games following the season-ending injury to Derrick Rose. Philadelphia is the first eighth-seeded team to win three straight NBA playoff games since the Knicks won six in a row during the 1999 postseason, which also followed an abbreviated regular season. New York won its first-round finale at Miami that year, before sweeping a four-game series against the Hawks and taking the first game of the Conference Finals against the Pacers. The 76ers are the first #8 seed to win three straight playoff games against a #1 seed since the Nuggets won the last three games of their best-of-five first-round series against the SuperSonics in 1994 (after trailing that series two-games-to-none).

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: Derrick Rose contributed 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to the Bulls’ 103-91 victory over the 76ers in the NBA’s playoff opener, but he left late in the fourth quarter with a knee injury later diagnosed as a torn ACL, and he has been declared out of the playoffs. During the just-completed regular season, the Bulls went 18-9 in the 27 games that Rose missed (they were 32-7 with Rose in the lineup). By another view, with Rose on the court, on a per-48-minutes basis, the Bulls outscored their opponents, 100.4 to 90.3; with Rose on the bench (including bench-time in games in which he played), the Bulls outscored the opposition, 92.2 to 85.6. And keep in mind that factoring in his injuries and normal rest during a game, Rose was on the court only 43 percent of time for the Bulls this season.

By the way, no Bulls player has had a triple double in a playoff game since Scottie Pippen had his last one on May 1, 1996.

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: The Mavericks scored only eight points in the first quarter of their loss to the Bulls on Saturday. That’s the fewest points that they have scored in the first quarter of any game in team history. 

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: The Wizards won in Miami on Saturday after they won their previous road game, in Chicago on Monday. It’s the first time in NBA history that a team with a winning percentage under .300 won consecutive road games against opponents who had winning percentages of at least .700, at least 10 games into a season.

(Source: ESPN)

From Elias: The Wizards rallied to beat the Bulls in Chicago after trailing by six points entering the fourth quarter on Monday. That snapped Washington’s streak of 66 consecutive road defeats in which it trailed after three quarters, which was the longest such streak for any team in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55).

(Source: ESPN)