It is refreshing to see a basketball team take such joy in the little things, and no, this is not another Muggsy Bogues bit.
On second thought, let’s get that out of the way.
“To beat Chicago, we have to keep our guard up,” said Hornets coach Allan Bristow.
I really ought to pay this guy.
The image that flashes in my mind is putting Bogues on Hersey Hawkins’ shoulders, but Bristow’s game strategy is not always apparent, like having the brutish Larry Johnson playing point and bringing the ball up or flaring his center, Alonzo Mourning, out beyond the three-point line.
So it could mean launching Bogues from one of those spring catapults on which the mascot, a thing called Hugo the Hornet, managed to injure himself in the first game. Hugo now has his own medical bulletins and is expected to be able to continue cross-dressing.
The Hornets do lots of weird and stupid things with the basketball and sometimes they get away with them, as they did Sunday to tie the series with the Bulls, a team with a game in pocket and no worse than the home-court advantage no matter what happened next.
Mostly the Hornets were meaner than the Bulls and stronger underneath, as is the case with almost any team the Bulls play. But this was always how the Hornets were going to have to win. The fact that the Hornets used their strengths instead of wasting them was cause for much self-congratulations.
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“We need to carry this intensity into Chicago,” Mourning said.
Having now done the expected, should the Hornets manage to actually beat the Bulls in the NBA playoffs, medics ought to be on hand in case they consume themselves with terminal delirium.
What I mean about a team taking joy in small things is like hugging itself between dribbles because it has managed to hold on to a 15-point lead.
Blowing kisses to the crowd because it did not dig its home hole any deeper than it did. And seeing in victory vindication for having been a higher seed than the Bulls in the first place.
“People around the country think we were going to be a cakewalk for Chicago,” Bristow said. “They forget that this team won 50 games.”
I do admit it had slipped my mind.
“I understand the Bulls have enough championship rings to fill a jewelry box, but to beat us, they’re going to have to earn it,” Bristow said.
Three rings would need only a very small box, and would rattle around in a sandwich bag. But this is from a man who has no championship rings at all, so his idea of what one looks like may be exaggerated.
“Hey, we’re going up there to win two games. We want to get it done up there,” said Bristow. “Believe it or not, this is a series.”
Had the results been reversed, had the Bulls won in overtime Sunday and lost on Friday, the Bulls would not need to defend doing what they came here to do.
“We came here to get one and we got it,” said Michael Jordan. “There was the desire to get more, but we didn’t execute.”
One thing the Bulls might want to work on is not overreacting to bad calls. In both games, goaltending was ignored, but Sunday’s non-call deflated Toni Kukoc as if someone had opened his spit valve. Only marginally a nuisance up to that point, Kukoc was worthless after.
And another thing the Bulls might want to do is teach whichever officiating crew comes to the United Center on Tuesday how to count to four or five, which is the number of steps Johnson takes whenever he does one of those underneath spin moves of his.
Trying to be helpful in this regard, coach Phil Jackson used some impressive choreography that mimicked Johnson’s move. Jackson was hit with a technical foul instead of deserved applause.
Jackson, it turns out, can dance almost as well as the Hornets.