It gave them a standing ovation, the United Center crowd did, more as a courtesy than anything else. If this was the last time it would see the Bulls as we know them, the sellout crowd could not have been happy.
The “Last Dance” or “Last Waltz” or “Last Watusi”– whatever Bulls fans are calling it–will continue because of the Utah Jazz and Karl Malone. With Friday’s stunning 83-81 victory over the Bulls in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the Jazz extended its season, forcing at least one more game in Salt Lake City. The Bulls lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, but they’re going back to the Delta Center for Game 6 Sunday, and if necessary, Game 7 Wednesday.
The Bulls didn’t want it to come down to this. They’d rather spend their weekend reflecting on the past and pondering the future. Perhaps they already were doing so–they never seemed to have their minds on the game as Malone lit them up for 39 points, treating hapless Luc Longley and Dennis Rodman with equal disdain.
“I would have loved to win it here at home,” Michael Jordan acknowledged. “That would have been a great scenario. But it didn’t happen.”
Even until the final second, it looked as if the Bulls could pull it out. Even after shooting just 39 percent. Even with Scottie Pippen’s 2-of-16 shooting performance. Even though nobody really showed up except Toni Kukoc, who led them with 30 points but missed a big free throw with 18.9 seconds left, and Jordan, whose 28 points came on 9-for-26 shooting, 1 of 7 in the final quarter.
A happy ending was as close as Jordan’s missed 26-footer at the buzzer. The Bulls had trailed the entire fourth quarter but got a break when Utah’s Jeff Hornacek missed the first of two free throws with 1.1 seconds left in the game.
Everybody in the building, everyone in the national television audience, knew whom the ball was going to. Ron Harper first tried to inbound to Steve Kerr from halfcourt, but John Stockton poked the ball away. There were eight-tenths of a second left.
That was plenty of time for Jordan, but he missed with an off-balance rainbow in what could have been his last game at the United Center.
“For 1.1 seconds, everybody was holding their breath,” Jordan said. “Which was kind of cute.”
The Jazz was able to let its collective breath out, having finagled a trip back home.
“I guess we have our backs against the wall,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “It’s very obvious to anybody that they still have the lead on us. But I like the fact that at least we have regained the home-court advantage, and we worked for 82 games to try to achieve that. That’s why you play. Hopefully we can do something when we get back to Utah.”
The Jazz goes back with the comfort that its offense finally clicked against the Bulls’ hounding defense. Utah shot 51 percent, including a blistering 71 percent in the third quarter when Malone scored 17 points and took over the game. Stockton flashed his Game 1 form, dishing out 12 assists with only two turnovers. And Antoine Carr was huge off the bench, missing just one of his six shots and scoring 12 points in 21 minutes.
“It’s just one game,” Malone said. “You’ve got to take the good with the bad and you take their doses. You try not to listen to everything that’s said about you.”
The Bulls probably need to learn that. They thought this thing was over.
“We didn’t want to make the trip back to Utah,” conceded Pippen, who before Friday had played like the series MVP. “We wanted it to end tonight. We just didn’t come out and play a complete game.”
Not from the opening tip.
Perhaps the Bulls had some form of jitters, realizing that this could be the end. Kukoc scored 13 of their first 14 points, carrying the team when nobody else could muster any offense. He was 5 for 5 in the first quarter; the other Bulls were 2 for 15, but somehow they had an 18-16 lead.
The second quarter was played like a season opener between Vancouver and the Clippers. The Bulls and Jazz combined for two baskets and 10 turnovers in the first 5 minutes of the period. The half ended with the Bulls holding a 36-30 lead, the fewest first-half points by two teams in NBA playoff history.
Jordan and Kukoc scored 30 of the Bulls’ 36 first-half points. Malone had 14 points at halftime.
Through the third quarter, the Bulls still couldn’t get anything going, while the Jazz was starting to feel more and more confident.
“A lot of the things we tried to do were difficult for us, as far as putting the ball on the floor,” Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. “They were very good with their hands tonight, stripping the ball. The first half was what I call a rugby contest. There was a lot of mucking around out there and a lot of scrums. But they were just quick to the ball.”
Particularly down the stretch.
“We never really got momentum in the second half,” Jackson said. “Then we had to start playing catchup. But we came back and got it to where we still had our opportunities right to the end.”
The Bulls hadn’t lost a Finals home game since 1993, when Phoenix beat them in Game 5 at the Chicago Stadium. They haven’t lost three in a row with Jordan in the lineup since the start of the 1990-91 season.
Now is not the time to do it again.
