The Bulls came out last Sunday afternoon and skunked the New York Knicks in the first few minutes of play. They did so in an almost unstoppable fashion; there was no way the Knicks could have altered their fortunes. Michael Jordan drove the lane and drew attention, then passed to center Bill Cartwright, who hit the wide-open shot. Jordan and Cartwright worked the same play the next time down the court. Then, with the Knicks’ Johnny Newman playing ever so slightly off him, to prevent another drive, Jordan hit a three-pointer with a release so quick it was like the blink of a robin’s eye. (He’d hit a team-record seven three-pointers the previous Thursday against the Golden State Warriors.) After a steal, Jordan loped down the court, leapt, lowered the ball to belt-buckle level, and jammed it through the hoop backwards, over his head, to make the score 9-0. Time-out Knicks.
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Pippen, of course, is one of the main differences between last season and this; he was the main difference between the Bulls at mid-season and the Bulls in the play-offs a year ago. It’s indicative of how he’s grown into his skills that his arms somehow seem to have grown longer. He’s getting to passes on defense that he previously danced past, just missing them and allowing the other team an open shot. And on offense he’s become a player who can dominate a game in spurts, a player who punishes the other team when its game gets a little ragged, when it blows a couple passes or fails to get back on defense after a missed shot. The Bulls’ chosen style of play is a quick-shifting half-court offense with Jordan on one side and Michael Jordan Jr.–Pippen–on the other. Yet these same two players–so dangerous in the half-court game–are explosive on the run; they can turn a ball game into a rout in mere moments, especially at the Chicago Stadium, where their stuffs set the fans off and rattle the opponents.
The Bulls’ bench is weak because the rookies, including red-shirt rookie Will Perdue, have not developed as quickly as was hoped. They all continue to show signs of promise, however, and may yet be ready by the play-offs, although a more reasonable scenario is to expect them to contribute heavily next year. Perdue–the seven-foot Vanderbilt center with the big feet and the sleepy-eyed foul shot–is almost close; he played well against Patrick Ewing both times the Bulls played the Knicks within a week’s time. He passes well, has some effective if awkward offensive moves, and struggles as hard as anyone on defense. What’s lacking is confidence and floor sense, which can only come with playing time. Stacey King, too, shows flashes of competence. The Bulls are easing his transition into the pro game by posting him up, back to the basket, on offense, just as he played in college. (When he plays alongside Cartwright, his presence in the low post on one side makes Cartwright even more open on the other side when Jordan or Pippen drives the lane.) Against the Knicks, when Ewing sat down with foul trouble in the second half, the Bulls even played King at center for a short time. (He responded with a pair of tip-ins.) B.J. Armstrong, we are sorry to report, is not advancing. He has developed a preference to shoot himself (pardon the pun) rather than pass the ball–a poor tendency for a point guard, especially one weaned in the Big Ten. (Armstrong went to Iowa.) Armstrong likes to come up the floor, dribbling, holding one finger in the air. As one friend of ours puts words in Armstrong’s mouth, that means: “The Number One play. I get to shoot.” Against the Knicks, Armstrong was on the floor at the end of the first half, running the offense for the last shot, and all he did was dribble around and then fire up a long shot at the buzzer. It missed.
Another long football season is about to come to an end, with a final result that will be either painfully predictable or one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. There is really no middle ground. The wise guys in Vegas have established the San Francisco 49ers as 12 1/2-point favorites over the Denver Broncos. The other lines that have been drawn between the two teams are even clearer than that. The Niners are trying to repeat as NFL champion–an unheard-of feat in this age of parity–and would tie the Pittsburgh Steelers’ record of four Super Bowl victories with a win. The Broncos would tie the Minnesota Vikings’ ignominious record of four Super Bowl losses with a defeat.
