An obvious question any time Michael Jordan goes on a scoring spree is what that said about the Bulls` offense.
Jordan finished with 56 points, Scottie Pippen had 31 and the next closest Bulls player, B.J. Armstrong, had 13.
”They just junk the offense and he takes over,” said Miami coach Kevin Loughery, explaining the phenomenan.
But Bulls coach Phil Jackson wouldn`t hear of it.
”That`s wonderful,” Jackson said. ”So what (if Jordan and Pippen carried the load) if everybody else played good defense and did their jobs?
”It doesn`t matter if one guy scores every point the whole game as long as the rest of the team functions.”
– John Paxson played 22 minutes to Armstrong`s 23 and wasn`t in at the end because of a sore back, according to Jackson.
Also, Pippen was hurting after the game with sore joints and cold symptoms.
The Bulls obviously came away with a great deal of respect for the 4-year-old Heat, playing in its first playoffs series.
”We never had control of the game until the end, and we kept looking over our shoulder, even then. . . .
”I`m going to predict now that this team, once they get more experience, they`re going to give a lot of teams problems in the playoffs.”
”It was a great season,” said Glen Rice, who led Miami in scoring with 25 points. ”We have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be proud of.”
– More Jordan descriptions: ”He`s like a grenade waiting to go off-without the pin,” said Rony Seikaly.
Said Bulls assistant Johnny Bach: ”Michael`s going to drive the bus back to the hotel just to complete the night.”
– The ”Saturday Night Live” show featuring Jordan as host will be rerun Saturday, and he is not looking forward to it.
”I`m going to be going through the same nervousness I went through at that particular time,” Jordan said. ”Actually I haven`t seen it, but I remember being very, very, very, very nervous. I`m out there trying to do something I don`t feel comfortable doing. That`s like you trying to play basketball in front of me. I`m going to laugh.”
