Nevertheless . . .
The Miami Flukes arrived at the United Center promptly for tipoff Tuesday night, the whole incidental bunch. Hardaway the Lesser; and Oh, No Problem, Zo; Dan, the Tan Man; Jamal Voshon, or Voshon Jamal, whichever it is, without a blush among them.
No apology, no guilt, no defense for being here, nor enough in the fourth quarter when it counted.
More Top Picks Best Pedal Go Karts For Kids
The Miami Clutter just took its place on the floor, shook hands all around and acted as if it had earned the right to rub up against the Bulls, only the Bulls.
“We played a great 40-45 minutes,” Miami coach Pat Riley said.
Just a case of the Miami Shorts.
Life lessons come hard and come free. A team has to know its limitations.
The Miami Accidents reached theirs with a 16-point lead in the second quarter and sort of loitered around at six ahead early in the fourth. It was then time to admire why it is that they are the Miami Happenstances and these are the Chicago Bulls.
“It’s disappointing knowing we outplayed a team pretty much the whole game and then, in 4 minutes, we let it slip away,” Alonzo Mourning said.
The Bulls ran off 21 points to the Miami Lucky Dogs’ five, as usual, as familiarly, behind Michael Jordan, who summed out at a necessary 37 for the night, while Scottie Pippen donated 24 points.
“They showed a greatness at the end,” Riley said. “That’s a great baseball bat they carry, to have Michael at the end.”
Mourning was as figured, no Patrick Ewing. And Tim Hardaway was no Anfernee. Mourning shoots the ball like he’s trying to dent it.
The Miami Trespassers tried not to be bothered by the Bulls’ illustrated nuisance, Dennis Rodman, but it was Rodman who remained in the game and generally upright until the end, acquiring 19 rebounds, while his opposite villain, P.J. Brown, was inconsequential, or maybe in some other building.
“Rodman had some good boards,” Brown said. “However, if you get some good officiating, I can keep him under control.”
The two games Brown missed for depositing a minor Knickerbocker into a courtside pile of photographers cost him $90,000, which, when applied to the Rodman scale of suspensions, is barely tip money.
Rodman’s assorted suspensions during the season were valued at something around $1.5 million, and Rodman didn’t need a middle man to abuse a photographer.
And what kind of villain is this Brown, anyhow? He is, by nearly unanimous consent, the NBA Citizen of the Year for doing–get this–work with the homeless. Promoting literacy. Not only visiting libraries but taking books out as well, though, as far as is known, none of Rodman’s.
Brown’s motto is Read to Succeed, while, of course, Rodman’s is Write to Ignite.
“We played great defense, except for Michael and Scottie,” Riley said.
This game was strictly in the hands of Jordan, Pippen, et al., the most et of them all being Toni Kukoc, whose first 10 minutes of basketball might be the worst playoff performance by anybody since, well, since the guy who butchered the national anthem with an amplified harmonica. But at least he occasionally found a familiar note.
“A hard-fought game,” Jordan said. “It will be a hard-fought series.”
The Miami Coincidences may be eager to get to where the Bulls are, but the Bulls seem equally preoccupied with returning to Miami’s position, a team trying to win a championship from the bottom rather than defend one from the top.
Otherwise, there would be no question of keeping Phil Jackson as coach, Jordan as legend and icon, Pippen as soulmate and Rodman as distant memory.
The Miami Door Prizes will not truly arrive until, like the Bulls, they play next season before the present one is finished.
More Top Picks Epson Workforce Pro Wf 4820
Or at least for a whole 48 minutes.