pushed Orlando to a 7th game before losing the series. The following season was the most challenging in franchise history but despite that the Pacers duplicated their record from the previous season, 52–30, with Davis averaging 8.8 points a game with 6.1 rebounds a game. In the playoffs the Pacers were defeated by the sixth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in five games. In the 1996–97 season the Pacers finished sixth in the Central Division with a record of 39–43 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1989 despite Davis playing in 82 games, starting 28 of them and averaging 10.5 points with 7.3 rebounds a game. The next year the Pacers bounced back and won 58 games and the second seed in the Eastern Conference (with the additions of former Boston Celtics player Larry Bird as head coach and veteran all-star Chris Mullin) with Davis playing in 82 games for the third year in a row while starting 12 of them and averaging 9.6 points a game and 6.8 rebounds a game, in the postseason the Pacers defeated the Shawn Kemp-led Cleveland Cavaliers and Ewing-led New York Knicks in the first two rounds before being matched up with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, after losing the first two games in Chicago, the Pacers responded by winning games three and four to forced a deciding game five back in Chicago, a game in which the Bulls won by a score of 106–87 to force a deciding sixth game back in Indiana, game six would be a hard-fought game in which the Pacers won by a score of 92–89 to send the series back to the United Center in Chicago for a deciding seventh game of the series, in game seven the Pacers fought and claw their way to every possession but it was not enough in the end as the eventual champion Bulls still prevailed by a score of 88–83 to win the series. The Pacers entered the season as a heavy favorite because Michael Jordan had retired and other members of the Chicago Bulls were broken up by their management. After a four-month lockout, the Pacers won the Central Division with a record of 33 wins and 17 losses and although he was unable to break into the first team Davis still averaged 9.4 points a game, with 7.0 rebounds a game solidifying his role