Michael Jordan’s most fearsome weapon isn’t his jump shot or his dunk or even his defense; it’s his sixth sense for when a game can be seized and pocketed, even when he and the Bulls aren’t playing well. Though it’s commonly referred to as his killer instinct, I don’t believe there is anything instinctive about it. Jordan has always had a flair for drama, first displayed on the national stage with his game-winning shot in the 1982 college basketball championship game, but that sense of when and how to take control of a contest–especially a playoff game–is something he learned at the hands of the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons knew when they had a team on the run–they had a chess player’s feel for initiative–and I can still remember Bill Laimbeer, on the bench in foul trouble during a 1989 game at the Chicago Stadium in the Bulls’ first trip to the Eastern Conference finals, exhorting his teammates, “We need stops!” The Bulls had outplayed the Pistons for most of the game but suddenly the Pistons had the initiative, and if they could keep the Bulls from scoring on the next few possessions they knew they could steal the victory. Which they did.
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Jordan has displayed this sixth sense so regularly over the years–it’s the essential element of the Bulls’ five championships and their record 72-win 1995-96 regular season–that I think most fans take it for granted. It wasn’t until B.J. Armstrong displayed a like sense in the second game of the Bulls’ playoff series against the Charlotte Hornets last week–a trait he had clearly learned at Jordan’s knee during his seven years with the Bulls–that it was cast once again in relief. The Bulls had escaped with a win in the first game, thanks in large part to Jordan’s wherewithal, and vowed to play better from the opening tip of the second game; but it took almost three minutes for either team to score the game’s first basket–a jumper by Anthony Mason–and the quality of play improved only slightly after that. Though they outscored the Hornets in each of the first three quarters, the Bulls were letting them hang around. A couple of Hornets shooters can get hot in a hurry–bench player Dell Curry and starter Glen Rice, who I saw swishing three-pointers flat-footed during warm-ups with no more effort than other players expend tossing in layups–and there was an almost tangible fear throughout the United Center that the Bulls were living dangerously. Indeed, Curry came in and shot the lights out in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of his 15 points, including a tough shot over Steve Kerr to put Charlotte in front 64-63. But it was Armstrong who had the finger on the Bulls’ jugular. Pushing the ball upcourt time and again, he hit two quick stop-and-pop jumpers to put the Hornets up 68-63, and sank the dagger–Jordan’s weapon of choice–by hitting from outside after a critical offensive rebound by Vlade Divac to make it 76-71 Hornets with 18 seconds to play.
The Bulls won both games last weekend in Charlotte to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, as the Hornets–befitting their name–proved themselves dangerous but easily shooed away, more comical than threatening to the Bulls in their march toward a sixth NBA title. There was Mason and his one-handed way of shooting free throws, in which he poses with the ball in his left hand and then raises his outstretched right, like a fourth tenor about to give voice in Carmen. There was J.R. Reid, who has gone through a series of unfortunate hair stylings over his career–from the Philly fade to unruly braids–before shaving his hair altogether, which with his skull might be the most unfortunate style of all. And don’t forget Divac and his flat-footed European running style that makes him look like a character from a Jacques Tati movie–never more so than during a stop in play in the first game when he bounced the ball off the floor with his foot, kicked it into the air, and served it to the referee soccer-style by bouncing it off his forehead.
The Bulls were back to looking beautiful again, but that second game raised concerns beyond Armstrong’s one-game challenge to Jordan. For one thing, the Indiana Pacers have a player of their own who knows how to kill, Reggie Miller, who has learned much from the master. (He and Jordan have become good friends off the court, and of course are ferocious competitors on it.) A worrisome absence in the closing minutes of the Chicago loss was that of Ron Harper, who returned to play very well at the beginning of the third game but whose gimpy knees have him competing in spurts. The Bulls could have used his all-around solid play at both ends late in game two, instead of having to choose between the offensive-minded Kerr and defensive-minded Brown. Should the Bulls get past the Pacers to reach the NBA finals, they will likely need a healthy Harper, who was essential in their last two championship finals against the Seattle SuperSonics and Gary Payton and the Utah Jazz and John Stockton.
