Michael Jordan wishes he had the answer. So do Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and Phil Jackson. John Paxson has a pretty good handle on it. But Cleveland`s Craig Ehlo seems to understand better than everyone.
The mystery is what drives this Bulls team, why good performances follow bad ones and why worse games sometimes follow those.
The big picture certainly doesn`t escape the defending world champions. A second consecutive NBA title is the obvious goal as well as an occasional distraction. But it isn`t a big enough goal, apparently, to generate the same type of enthusiasm and consistency of last season.
”It`s a really confusing situation to go through it the way we`re going through it,” Jordan said of the Bulls` second title pursuit. ”Up and down. We have to get some type of consistency now and I think Phil thinks this is a great time to get more consistent and get that hunger that we had last year. I think winning on the road gives us that hunger.”
Winning the way the Bulls did in Game 3-a 105-96 decision at Richfield Coliseum in which the Bulls outshot, outrebounded and thoroughly frustrated the Cavs` offense-doesn`t hurt either.
But what`s next? The Bulls followed an impressive Game 1 victory in Chicago with a demoralizing 26-point loss in Game 2 at the Stadium. Embarrassment worked so well as a tonic for Game 3, does someone need to publicly humiliate the Bulls before Game 4 here Monday afternoon?
”I wish the Cleveland media would say something bad about our team,”
said Grant, only half-kiddingly. ”That, and just going out and really wanting it would get us motivated. It`s a psychological thing. It`s like someone coming into your house and kicking you in the rear end and 10 million people seeing it on television. You`re like, oh no, we can`t let this happen again. And there you have the motivation factor to go out and say, hey, it`s not going to happen again.
”The one motivation factor now is that we don`t want to come back to Cleveland. It`s not our favorite city.”
If that doesn`t strike you as gripping consequences, Grant can appreciate that.
”We just have to go out and find some way to get ourselves to where we were last year,” he said. ”Last year we were hungrier. I can`t explain it. It`s just so difficult to get to that peak again.”
”The first (title),” Pippen said, ”we wanted a little bit more. Now we`re sort of going through the motions. Expectations are high and we`re reading the paper and thinking it`s going to be easy. But it`s not that easy. We still have to come out and play 48 minutes to achieve what we want to get.”
Not that easy at all. New York certainly put up a bigger fight than last season`s second-round opponent, Philadelphia. For that matter, say the Bulls, Miami this season was tougher than the Knicks last season.
The conference finals, says Paxson, is just a whole different game.
”The fact that we got Detroit again (last year) in the conference semis, there was just tremendous motivation and I don`t know how you could match that again-the fact that they had beaten us so often,” he said. ”So sure, there`s a different attitude. But that doesn`t mean we`re not motivated. It`s just means that the circumstances change from year to year.”
Ehlo, Cleveland`s soft-spoken guard, said he doesn`t find it so strange the Bulls are groping for a spark. ”At our level of play, once you win the championship, that`s an opportunity you shoot your whole life to get,” he said. ”Then all of a sudden it`s not there anymore. You don`t have that drive sometimes. Your next goal is to repeat because it`s something other clubs haven`t done. I can see how it`s harder.”
Paxson says expectations have fallen heavy on the Bulls.
”Every time you turn around, it`s `Why aren`t you playing like last year?` How come you`re not beating teams like last year?` So it`s always there for us,” he said. ”But it`s really not important. The fact that we beat New York in seven games doesn`t matter. We won. The fact that if we can win this series, no matter how many games it takes, that doesn`t matter as long as we get to four wins first.”
The Bulls have some solutions in mind.
”You have to look at it like you haven`t won a championship,” Pippen said. ”It`s tough to do but you just have to have a little more hunger for it and realize that the second championship is more important to you than the first one.
”We came out last season and didn`t rely on anyone to motivate us. We did it ourselves. And this series, it`s very tough for us to get motivated, but we did it. We`re professionals. We have to take it into our own hands.”
Jackson, said Pippen, can only do so much. The Bulls coach knows that as well.
”I`ve always told the team,” Jackson said, ”that it doesn`t matter what the formula is or what the strategy is. If you don`t have intensity, you won`t get it done. It`s not the strategy, it`s how you get prepared mentally.”
Pippen figures it has to get less complicated. ”The closer we get to the goal, the hungrier we`re going to get,” he said. ”We really set out in this series not to go to seven games like we did against New York. We realize it`s going to get tougher, but we feel we can do it.”
