9001190964
DETROIT FREE PRESS
900521
Monday, May 21, 1990
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM
GAME 1
Copyright (c) 1990, Detroit Free Press
UGLY, BUT PISTONS PLAY BY RULES
GAME 1? IT'S A DUD, EXCEPT FOR DUMARS
That sound -- clank! -- you heard -- whompf! -- from inside -- thud! -- the
Palace -- whifff! -- was, believe it or not, the NBA Eastern Conference
finals. At least that's what they call it in May. In February it's just a
game where a lot of people miss their shots.
Ah, well. These things happen. Like getting a rip in your pants. And
besides, the Pistons won, so folks around here are happy. But because games
like Sunday's determine who goes West to play, um, somebody, for the NBA
crown, coaches and writers must now come up with at least 50 complex reasons
why James Edwards missed five free throws. Personally, I think it's because
he didn't shoot very well.
"Do you realize I didn't score a point after the first period?" Edwards
asked Mark Aguirre in the locker room, after the Pistons beat the Bulls,
86-77, in Game 1.
"You're kidding me," Aguirre said.
"Nope," Edwards said.
"And we still won?" Aguirre said, rolling his eyes. "Whooeee! Are we
happy today or what?"
Well, it's good to know somebody's happy with this performance. In between
the baskets, which were rare, and the technicals, which were plentiful, we had
traveling, palming, balls hitting the top of the glass, more traveling. Take
out Michael Jordan and Joe Dumars -- who seemed to be playing on another
court, anyhow -- and the Pistons and Bulls shot 36 percent. For the game.
Comedy, Steve Martin once said, is not pretty. Neither was this.
Let us list the Pistons' stars.
1. Dumars.
2. Dennis Rodman.
3. Dumars.
We give Joe first place for his offense, which pulled the Pistons from the
fire in the third quarter, and third place for his defense, which helped tire
Jordan in the second half. Rodman gets in there for his rebounding, which was
excellent. The rest of the Pistons? Well. Let's say they were saving it for
future games. I promise you, they won't argue. Heck, they're thrilled to have
won on an off-day like this.
"Just give us one hot guy," said Bill Laimbeer, who scored only nine
points, nodding in Dumars' direction. "One hot guy. That's all we need."
Unfortunately, in the Bulls' case, that is all they have.
Which brings us to the big question, of course: How did Michael Jordan
do?
Answer No. 1: He was knocked around, hurt his hip, fell on his head,
wrestled with his shot.
Answer No. 2: Better than his teammates.
Then again, his teammates might have struggled with the Belgian Olympic
team on Sunday. The four other Chicago starters scored 31 points combined;
Jordan scored 34. And that included the entire fourth quarter, in which he
sank just one basket. To be fair, Mr. Air seemed to be playing hurt. Early in
the game, he came flying among Dumars, Rodman and John Salley, shot the ball
and went crashing to the floor on his left hip. He came up limping.
"I think I had my legs cut from under me," Jordan said.
"We didn't do it," Salley insisted. "He came in flying. There was no
place to go but down. Yeah, he limped when he got up. Then he jumped 47
inches off the ground."
Well. Such is Jordan. He did bag an incredible shot at the halftime buzzer,
hanging between two defenders until gravity pulled them down, then
delay-shooting a three-pointer that swished. That, however, would be the cap
on his glory. An hour and a half later, the game was over, and Jordan had lost
Round 1 against Dumars, who, as usual, has been handed the suit of armor and
told to kill the dragon.
No problem. Not only did Dumars stick to Jordan on defense, but he
exploded a la Jordan on offense. The third quarter was lovely to behold.
Dumars began with a lay-up off an Isiah Thomas pass. Then another lay-up. Then
a jump shot. Then another lay-up. Then four more jump shots, some of them on
the run. "I started to get in that groove where you think anything you put up
is going to go in," he said. By the end of the quarter, he had scored 18
points. The Pistons had the lead for good.
"A lot of people don't pay attention to your offense," an ESPN reporter
observed to Dumars, who finished with 27.
"I hope they continue not to pay attention," he said.
"Why?"
"The less attention they pay, the easier it is to do it."
Rest assured the Bulls are paying attention. Whether they can do
anything about it is another matter. If Jordan's hip pointer lingers, and John
Paxson remains hobbled with his ankle injury, this series could end with the
Detroit frontcourt never having to punch in. Let's face it. Chicago's B.J.
Armstrong, a rookie and a nice guy -- even if he does look as if he's late
for his Cub Scout meeting -- is no match for the likes of Dumars, Thomas and
Vinnie Johnson. And I don't think the Bulls will come back Tuesday with any
huge surprises. Let's not forget, these teams have played each other 18
times in the past two seasons. They spend half the game calling out each
other's plays.
"This was the game they should have won," allowed Thomas, who, like his
teammates, remembers last year, when the Bulls stole Game 1 of this series
and made it difficult the rest of the way. "We played poorly on offense, we
missed open shots, which is uncharacteristic for us."
And yet, they still came away victorious. Goes to show what defense and
rebounding can do for you, even if you can't hit the rim. The Bulls were left
with their painfully familiar script -- Jordan scores big, the others go
flat, the game is lost -- and they may now have that sinking feeling you get
when you watch a bus pull away and realize it may have been the last one for
the night.
The series will continue. The adjustments will be made. Before it is over,
I am sure, there will be some exciting moments. The ball will actually fall
through the net. As for Sunday's game, well, maybe the best comment came from
Edwards. He said: "I hope it's out of our system."
Here's hoping with you, kid.
GAME 1; NBA; PLAYOFF; BASKETBALL; DPISTONS; CHICAGO BULLS;Pistons