This Bulls’ season has been much more of an odyssey than were the last two campaigns. For the most part they were smooth sailing, aside from some turbulence during last year’s playoffs, of course. This season, though, the Bulls have worked their way through a series of tasks and tests. At times, the 82-game season has seemed just too long; at times it has seemed so demanding that it is nothing if not fair. Each team has had to weather storms and doldrums, so that even the impressive Phoenix Suns went through a recent rough stretch. For the Bulls, it’s been one calamity after another. First there were Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen working their way gingerly into the fray after a summer spent with the U.S. Olympic team; then the slow recovery of John Paxson and the controversy over B.J. Armstrong starting at point guard; then the win over the New York Knicks on Christmas and the ensuing hot streak; then the new injuries to Paxson and Bill Cartwright and the four straight home losses, which acted as a set of gargoyle bookends around the down-and-up road trip that was turned around with the Bulls’ comeback victory against the Utah Jazz.
Tucker had his best game of the season in that win over the Hawks that Pippen sat out. He made all nine shots he took, six of them from three-point range, to finish with 24 points. That was the sort of performance one expects once a season from Tucker, and it made the game a rout. Yet more important were the contributions by Perdue and Williams. Against the Hawks, whom the Bulls had not defeated this season, head coach Phil Jackson replaced Pippen with Horace Grant at small forward and started Williams at Grant’s power-forward position. The Hawks had ruled the Bulls in large part because small forward Dominique Wilkins gave Pippen fits and center/forward Kevin Willis did the same to Grant. With Grant shifting over to cover Wilkins and the larger, heavier Williams keeping Willis off the boards–Williams outrebounded him 11-8–the Hawks’ two main strengths were negated, allowing Tucker and Jordan, who finished with 34, to rule the game. Jackson was impressive in playing the proper cards off the bench at the proper moments. The Bulls, it appeared, were indeed going to come around, not only in time for the playoffs, but in time to secure home-court advantage right up to the NBA finals.
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The Spurs, however, had arrived at the lineup and the tactics they wanted, to which they added a little extra intensity in the third quarter. Pippen tried to carry the Bulls through this rough stretch by himself, but the Spurs took to putting him on the free-throw line and he, like Grant, missed three foul shots in a row. For Chicago fans, the bad omens were as plain as a hat on a bed. And San Antonio got the lead down to single digits, 78-69, at the end of the third quarter.
Two San Antonio free throws later, with the Bulls down 105-102 in the closing seconds, Armstrong missed a three but the Spurs lost the rebound out of bounds. Then the Bulls passed the ball in to Williams at the top of the key, and he took the shot–let’s make it clear, that’s Scott Williams, not Corey Williams–and missed everything, giving the Spurs the ball and the game.
“The play’s called, ‘What the fuck.’ And that’s exactly what happened.” Jackson curled up the corner of his mouth, Smith smiled, and the circle of reporters burst into laughter.
