It was gloomy and threatening, a storm apparently on the verge of raging, Jan. 10 in Atlanta as the Bulls prepared to play the Hawks. And the weather wasn`t too nice, either.
No, this was a night when it appeared the roiling winds of frustration and failed expectations were about to blow down the Bulls` hopes for building something this season.
Although the team was 16-14, it was playing poorly. It had been lucky to defeat the woeful Clippers in overtime at home, was vaporized in Cleveland by the same Cavaliers it defeated in the playoffs last season and flicked off like pesky flies by the Utah Jazz.
What`s more, the players were losing confidence in the team`s new makeup, the coaches growing unsettled about its prospects.
Center Bill Cartwright, in for the popular and effective Charles Oakley, wasn`t scoring enough. And the rest of his game really had problems.
The organization had raved that Cartwright would solve the Bulls`
problems against teams with dominating centers. But when he was double-teamed, he rarely knew where to throw the ball and treated too many passes as though he were wearing boxing gloves. And worse, he was losing the respect of his teammates.
Players often were heard joking about how they weren`t going to throw him the ball. And their threats became reality when Cartwright was shut out against Utah, having been allowed to play just 17 minutes to a chorus of ridicule.
Yet, that wasn`t the only exceptional development about that game against the Jazz.
Michael Jordan, who initially was critical of the trade for Cartwright, apparently began to doubt the future, too.
Jordan had scored 20 points in the first half against Cleveland but rarely shot in the second, surprising Cleveland players.
The pattern continued the next night against Utah, and Jordan uncharacteristically left the locker room before reporters arrived. He since has refused to talk about the two games.
But a teammate said Jordan, who publicly committed to rebounding and passing more this season, was starting to feel that his unselfish efforts were getting him nowhere, that he essentially said in his actions, ”Here, I`ll pass the ball. See what they can do with it?”
At the same time, some teammates were beginning to grumble privately that there was no chance to develop as a team with Jordan.
That tornado of emotions and swirling fortunes had the Bulls in its grip when they found themselves trailing Atlanta by 14 in the fourth quarter, apparently on the verge of what would almost certainly be a disastrous loss.
Jordan was on the court, as were Scottie Pippen (recovering from the flu), Horace Grant and Cartwright. And it was almost as if they said, ”Okay, if it doesn`t work now, that`s it.”
But it did work. The Bulls went on a 15-0 spurt, guarded the lane as though it contained their last meals and ate up the Hawks with Pippen`s steals, Grant`s rebounding, Cartwright`s defense on Moses Malone and Jordan`s 14 fourth-quarter points. He finished with 48 for the game.
Jordan went home to North Carolina the next night and sort of left it to the others, and the Bulls won. Then they returned to Chicago and dominated Denver, blasted Boston on national TV, incapacitated Indiana and mauled Miami. Suddenly their winning streak had reached six games and they owned the same won-lost record as last season`s 50-game winners had at a comparable point of the season.
Pippen was scoring regularly, sort of a mini-Jordan on the break, and Cartwright had started getting the ball, trying to do less with it and scoring more. Grant had begun to get a few more shots, and when teams double-teamed Jordan, another player was getting open, heading for the basket and making the shots.
It didn`t resemble the same team that was being sucked into a maelstrom of doubt and defeat two weeks before, and it wasn`t a dream. For Tin Man Cartwright found his heart, and shooting touch, and the lion-hearted Pippen discovered the courage to perform. And Jordan`s wizardry proved no fake. A yellow brick road beckoned.
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Still, this Bulls team, for all its recent success, remains limited in several areas and still is a candidate for first-round elimination in the playoffs.
For one thing, the schedule, mild of late like the weather, figures to blow against them starting in March with a tough Western Conference trip and 19 of their last 28 games against playoff teams.
Also, as Phoenix and Philadelphia recently demonstrated, the Bulls cannot get into a scoring battle with anyone, for they just don`t have enough guns.
Their big one, though, remains the best. Jordan, while still averaging 35 per game, also has been the team`s leader in rebounds and assists for the last 33 games, averaging 9 rebounds and 7 assists in that time.
Still, Jordan can be used better. He`s still averaging 41 minutes per game, the most in the league, and is even more effective in a running game.
Pippen, Grant and Sam Vincent also benefit from a running game, so it`s reasonable to conclude that the Bulls, with some of the best young athletic talent in the league, should be running more and calling plays less. And they handle the defensive boards well enough to do so.
Meanwhile, Cartwright has responded to the increased commitment in the last 10 games by shooting 51 percent and averaging 16 points. That`s a great improvement and probably indicates what should have been expected of him.
Pippen also has lived up to some expectations, averaging almost 17 points and 7 rebounds since he began starting starting 16 games ago and displaying a much-improved outside jump shot.
But for all his Jordan-like excitement, Pippen also allows too many points by the man he`s playing. His defensive assignment has been scoring an average of 22.3 points a game against him.
The worry about Pippen`s fellow sophomore, Grant, is his weight, which often is 25 pounds fewer than his opponents`. Grant, playing brilliantly at times and averaging a respectable 8.8 rebounds per game, willingly took on Oakley`s role. But he doesn`t have Oakley`s bulk and often is pushed around when the game slows to half court. Yet, when finally given more shooting opportunities, he`s demonstrating he can be an effective scorer.
It`s clear rookie Will Perdue is not going to get many opportunities this season, but Dave Corzine is shooting better, although he needs regular time to be effective.
Reserve guards John Paxson and Craig Hodges have pulled out defenses with their timely three-point shooting. Yet, when they`re both off, the bench has little punch.
Little punch is about the way to describe Brad Sellers these days. He`s shot just 37 percent since he was replaced by Pippen in the starting lineup. The team is trying to trade him, and he`d probably be better off, for he can help a team, if not this one.
A lot still has to go right this season for the Bulls to be a success. They could use another power forward to help out Grant, and they need another scorer to find a way to average closer to 110 as a team per game (now 105).
Jordan remains the only ”go-to” player at game`s end. Cartwright has yet to show he can perform at that time, and though Hodges has given some indications that he might be effective late in games, he`s not always on the court then.
They`ve proved they can beat Atlanta and New York but need to get to fourth place in the East (they`re now sixth) to have a good chance of winning a playoff series.
They`ve been playing tougher defense and have the ability to better exploit the trap to create more turnovers, but they still are among the league`s worst in that category. Mostly, they ought to run more and let Vincent, who was an effective penetrating guard until asked to stop and look for Cartwright, take the ball and go.
The air seems mostly to have cleared. But conditions in the NBA can change quickly.
