Chicago Bulls: 5 most memorable moments from 2017

3. Bulls suffer another first round postseason exit

Despite sneaking into the playoffs behind a favorable schedule to close out the regular season, the Bulls made things interesting in their postseason matchup against the top-seeded Boston Celtics.

Not only did they shock the world by posting road victories in the first two games of that series, an unlikely catalyst proved to be the reason for their early success: Rajon Rondo. In those first two contests, Rondo’s averages included 11.5 points, 10.0 assists, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals on 42.3 percent shooting from the field. .

Not too bad for a guy who was removed from the rotation for five games. Of course, the Bulls’ good fortune was short-lived, as Rondo would be sidelined for the rest of the series thanks to a broken thumb.

From that point on, the Bulls’ offense wasn’t the same, to say the least. With Rondo in the lineup, the Bulls averaged 108.5 points per contest. In the final four games of the series, however, that number plummeted to 90.5 points per outing, including an embarrassing 105-83 drubbing in the series finale.

This marked the third time in four seasons that Chicago’s playoff run concluded with a disappointing loss on their home floor, thus making it the deciding factor in ushering in a new era of Bulls basketball.