Tired? Who was tired? After viewing a grisly in-flight movie, “Game 5-the Nightmare Continues,” on their way home from New York late Wednesday, the Bulls were itching for their Game 6 rematch against the Knicks-anytime, anywhere.
“I think if we could have gotten off the plane, strapped our sneakers on and said, `OK, let’s just play ball, winner take all,’ these guys would have gone right out on the floor and played them,” said coach Phil Jackson. “They just feel confident that they can beat the Knickerbockers. It’s as simple as that. And if they had to play a back-to-back, they’d feel that way.”
But one day after a questionable, last-second foul call seemed to define this second-round series and give the Bulls the consummate excuse for elimination as they head into Friday’s game at the Stadium trailing 3-2, Jackson said the mindset needs to be on basketball not bellyaching.
“We feel like we’re playing better as a basketball team,” he said. “We now have a situation where, as I told them last night, the best teams win in a seven-game series.
“If you want to make excuses, if you want to find a way out, we certainly have our way out. We can blame it on somebody else. But really, the blame lies right here. You don’t put yourselves in a game situation on somebody else’s court where the determination of the event can be taken out of your hands by a call like that. And, that’s our own fault, for putting ourselves in jeopardy in that situation.”
That situation, of course, was Scottie Pippen’s foul on Hubert Davis with 2.1 seconds remaining Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, a call that came after the shot was released.
So angry were the Bulls that few would speak to the media after the game, and Jackson was uncharacteristically brief with his comments. But the anger and frustration stayed with the group as they boarded their private jet for the trip home, prompting Jackson to have a brief therapy session. It entailed viewing the game-something the Bulls rarely do in flight-and as much yelling and swearing about it as his team deemed necessary.
“I can’t repeat it,” said Steve Kerr. “We were all anxious to see what happened and we all were upset.”
But Jackson was glad they watched. “We mostly digested it,” he said. “I didn’t want these guys to stay up the rest of the night and fret and fuss about it. So we got it out of our systems (Wednesday) night.”
There was a brief practice Thursday morning and another viewing of the game, except this time only up until halftime. “Phil didn’t want to drum up a lot of animosity,” said Luc Longley.
In retrospect, part of the frustration lies with the fact that the Bulls played perhaps their most complete game at Madison Square Garden in this series, shooting well at 51 percent and giving themselves a chance to win.
“We played three great games in Madison Square Garden,” Jackson said. “I mean, let’s face it, we may not have come out with the outcome we wanted, but we played three great games. They had one game in our building where they played pretty good, made a comeback and had a chance to win it. But we’ve consistently been on their tails on their own homecourt three times and we feel the series should be over. It should be ours.”
Jackson blamed the disparity in free throw shooting (25-11) in part for the loss. He was generally pleased with a fourth quarter in which the Bulls outscored New York 15-14, until their final offensive possession, one in which B.J. Armstrong missed a three-pointer as the 24-second clock ran down.
“I told them if they would have handled that last offensive play better, we wouldn’t have put ourselves in that jeopardy situation (on the Davis play),” Jackson said.
Now, of course, it’s double jeopardy for the Bulls, for whom a loss in Game 6 would mean elimination from the playoffs for the first time in four years and the end of their championship reign.
“I don’t think you’ll see us playing timid or playing not to lose,” said John Paxson. “I think you’ll see a Bulls team playing to win.”
The Bulls have been largely successful in Game 6 situations, winning their last four after losing Game 6 to the Knicks in 1992, a second-round series they then captured at the Stadium. Their only other Game 7 since 1975 was a defeat in Detroit in the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bulls have never won a Game 7 on the road. But that’s the last of their worries now.
“We still feel,” said Kerr, “that we’re going to win this series. We feel if we go out and play well, we’ll get one more shot at them at the Garden and we’ve been so close that sooner or later, we’re bound to win.”
