Not given to exaggerated comparisons, Scottie Pippen ought to be trusted when he equates the Bulls to music.
“We’re almost playing like an orchestra,” Pippen said.
Well, a five-piece band anyhow, although it does sound louder.
“We are really playing in sync and we’re finding our rhythm,” Pippen said.
More Top Picks Nespresso Essenza Mini Plus Aeroccino3
What was that tune being played in the United Center Wednesday night? Ah, yes. “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”
Goodbye to those bald barber poles from Michael Jordan’s home state. Hello, neighbor. Hello, Reggie.
The Bulls now get to trade one set of darning egg domes for another. The nearby Indiana Pacers await, strobing light off their naked heads like a casino ceiling.
The Pacers give a whole new meaning to winning ugly, the starting five resembling rented pallbearers, with Chris Mullin playing the corpse.
That will all start Sunday. This night was a night to tidy up, nothing more, required by obligation and TV schedules, neither reason enough to have bothered with yet another polka with the Hornets.
Early on neither team took the evening seriously enough to bother playing defense, preferring instead to act like wedding ushers.
May I escort you down the lane, Mr. Jordan? Can you see all right, Mr. Rice? Here, let me duck out of your way.
The only player who bothered to put a hand up was excused to the bathroom.
Later, despondency overcame the Hornets and they resorted to assorted bits of silliness, the most perilous antic being Glen Rice throwing, in sequence, a shoulder and then an elbow at Jordan.
Dell Curry objected to a bit of Dennis Rodman mischief so shrilly he was asked to leave instead of Rodman.
“It is important to finish teams off in the playoffs and play as few games as possible,” Pippen said.
Indiana did its part earlier in the evening, clubbing the Knickerbockers out in five, pretty much a habit for Reggie Miller and his cronies. Somewhere in the telecast of the game, one of the TV voices offered the opinion that, still, the “Knicks had the heart of a champion.”
That is not the organ I would have chosen.
The Pacers, under Larry Bird, finished only four games worse than the Bulls and with the best record since they were in the ABA.
This was determined to be reason enough to select Bird Coach of the Year. More accurately, Bird should be coach of a year, this being his only one.
And what coaching Bird does is undetectable to the naked eye. Bird is from the taxidermy school of emotion. His pulse is taken by seismograph.
The Celtics retired Bird’s number; the Pacers now may retire Bird’s Barcolounger.
Still, in the coaching ratings Bird poleaxed actual bona fides such as Jerry Sloan of Utah, not quite as great a player as Bird but much the superior coach, and well overdue for the honor.
This is where the Bulls were stopped the two years between the three-peats, here in the second round. Since winning their first conference final, they have not lost one.
In the five title runs, the Bulls have beaten, in order, Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Orlando and Miami, to reach the Finals.
The Pacers are this year’s fresh fodder.
More Top Picks Best Therapy Swings For Special Needs
Anyone have the sheet music for “Back Home Again in Indiana.”?