This time it was the New York Knicks’ turn to talk, as the Bulls did in January when Michael Jordan answered Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy’s charge that Jordan conned players into relaxing against him by scoring 51 points.
Scottie Pippen said Van Gundy ought to keep quiet until he accomplished something and, by the way, John Starks was probably a better shooting guard than Allan Houston, and former Knick Anthony Mason helped the team more than Larry Johnson does now.
So out went Pippen to shoot 4 of 18 for 14 points, and Johnson noticed.
“He needs to shut his mouth now,” Johnson said. “We didn’t do anything specific with him, just played straight up. But all he does is get up there and hand the ball off to No. 23 (Michael Jordan). That’s his best play: `Here, No. 23, bail us out.’ He’s got a (great player) over there, and that’s it.
“Did you see them the last four, five minutes of the game? `Here, No, 23, here you go, No. 23.’ “
So, Scottie . . .
“His best play is sitting over there and watching the game,” Pippen said of Johnson, who had seven points and one rebound in 27 minutes, only 11 minutes coming after halftime. “He just sat and watched in the second half. That’s my response. He didn’t play, so what’s he talking about?”
And so, at least until the two teams meet again here next month, it’s a rivalry again, Bulls and Knicks, the champions against the guys who really, really believe they can beat them. Really.
“They’ve had so much success against the Knicks,” New York forward Buck Williams said of the Bulls, “so it’s good to know you are capable of beating them even if this game was not significant. It was not a playoff game, but to prove to Chicago and also ourselves we can beat them gives us confidence.”
The Knicks have won seven straight and 15 of 17.
“You take one step at a time,” Williams said. “This is a step in the right direction. We didn’t conquer the world, but we did something we haven’t been able to do in the past, and that’s beat the Bulls. Now we’re believing we can, and that’s a step in the right direction.”
And so it was for the Knicks, who rallied from an early deficit to take control behind Ewing’s inside muscle and John Starks’ three-point shooting. They then went with three guards much of the second half because they weren’t particularly undersized with the Bulls minus Toni Kukoc, and Pippen isn’t much of a postup threat.
And the Knicks weren’t paying homage.
“Whenever you beat the so-called world champs, it gives you a confidence boost,” Starks said.
Added Chris Childs: “They’re a championship-type team, so it gives us the state of mind that we beat an elite team.”
Which was no surprise, Johnson insisted.
“They might be the team we play in the Eastern Conference finals,” Johnson said. “We want to know for us and them we can beat those guys. We know we can beat the Bulls. Y’all (the media) didn’t believe it, but the 12 guys in this locker room and the coaches feel we can beat anyone in this league.”
And the Bulls were a good place to start.
