Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 42

10 Section 3 Chicago Tribune, Sunday, April 21, 1996 NBA NOTESSam Smith ii CULLS ETC.0 i itl aching track et to back ud 1 3 Wr- -ci Vilkens' departure from Hawks tops ist of possibilities ost interesting rumor going around in coaching circles last week was that Lenny Wilkens might be rpnrlv tn ripnart Atlanta 1 Tribune photo by Jim Prisoning home two of his team-high 24 points Saturday against Indiana. eludes Bulls "When they drafted me there were certain things they knew I couldn't do," said EarL "I was never featured. But they wanted the big numbers." Change afoot: It looks like the Cavaliers will get that last home-court spot in the first round, and with a likely matchup against the Knicks, whom they've defeated three of four, it may be bye-bye for slumping New York after one round, and then.bye-bye to what we knew of the Knicks in the '90s. "We have a plan," said Knicks President Dave Checketts. That plan figures to wave farewell to Derek Harper, Charles Oakley, John Starks and Willie Anderson.

"We know what we're going to do. Did we take a couple of steps backward this year? We'll see what we do in the playoffs. I believe we have a franchise that is the envy of the other franchises because we play in a terrific city and a legendary arena. The Minnesota Timberwolves are never going to be the New York Knicks, and neither will the Miami That last salvo was, in part, a response to Heat coach and Knicks traitor (as he's known to Checketts) Pat Riley, who said the Knicks should re-sign interim coach Jeff Van Gundy because he is a loyalist Responded Checketts: "Pat talking about loyalty, now there's a change for you. I signed Pat to a long-term deaL As you know, that deal went through the end of this year.

Stand up and show some guts. Finish your own contract." A bit of a distraction? So it's the Bulls and Alonzo Mourning to open the playoffs for the second straight season. Unless Mourning is in jail, that is. It doesn't appear like it's going to happen, but it seemed close last week when the FBI showed up to search Mourning's home in Maryland in what was believed to be a drug-related investigation after the arrest of a man on drug charges. The FBI seized a car and records supposedly belonging to a cousin of FBI said Mourning was not the target of the investigation, although he might be interviewed as a witness.

And it was at Georgetown that coach John Thompson had Mourning stay away from a friend, Rayful Edmond, who was convicted of running a cocaine ring. Said Mourning: "I have been informed by my attorneys not to discuss the situation." Aipund the league: Pat Riley says no matter how many wins the Bulls get, his 1971-72 Lakers are better. Said Riley: "We had the greatest team in the history of the game. What we did, winning 33 straight, nobody is going to match that I do think the Lakers had more talent across the board than Chicago." It wouldn't be wise to bump a referee just now. The NBA is still calling the Dennis Rodman-Nick Van Exel-Magic Johnson troika of assaults isolated incidents, but the deteriorating respect for officials is prompting the NBA to send to all teams a letter about dealing with officials for the playoffs.

Said operations director Rod Thorn: "I don't think it would be prudent to test us on this. If I'm a player, I don't think I'd want to get involved in this right now." Which means bump an official in the playoffs and we'll see you next season. The Warriors' run for the last playoff spot was fueled, interestingly enough, by usually quiet J. Armstrong, who blasted his teammates after a loss to the Lakers. "When are we going to step up?" he said.

"I'm questioning everyone here. Saying you're working hard doesn't matter anymore. Now you've got to perform and meet the challenges. Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe some guys just don't know how to play in big games." Clippers coach Bill Fitch, after the Jazz, losers of seven of nine, defeated the Clippers: "We acted like Oral Roberts.

We healed them." Sam Smith covers the Bulls and the National Basketball Association for the Tribune. after the Olympics. I The Hawks have stumbled home, losing leads of at least 16 points to the Cavaliers, Bullets and 76ers, the latter (wo at home. They dropped all three games, prompting Grant Long to call the slump a "Cecil B. Demise production." I There's been talk of Wilkens being uncommunicative with players, and Wilkens not all that happy to see the pwners spending all their money on the.

Braves and little on the Hawks. Whatever happens with Wilkens, the coaching unemployment line Should be getting crowded. Perhaps a Jialf-dozen coaches will go this week. i They include: Milwaukee's Mike Dunleavy, Rumored to be out Monday. 9 New Jersey's Butch Beard, who Jaid last week, "They can chop my Jiead and bring in Rick Pitinto or yohn Calipari, but I hope they have Jhe same roster because I can't wait to 5et back here and see how many wins they get.

Our starters are basically Second-line. Armon Gilliam just had fhe best year of his career. Chris hilds had his best year. So have Jjayson Williams and P.J. Brown to jay nothing of Shawn Bradley.

So don't look at me." fl Charlotte's Allan Bristow, who continues to criticize the Alonzo Mourning deal and was heard to say Recently, "Let someone else work for (George Shinn, owner." Also expected to go this week are Philadelphia's John Lucas, Toronto's Brendan Malone and perhaps Denver's Bernie Bickerstaff. Clyde JDrexler noticed about the lottery-'bound Nuggets: "They've got a lot of ialent You'd think they'd have a better record." And there's more to come. Kicking it in: The Bullets' Juwan Howard gets his last free-agent Audition Sunday against the Bulls, and Howard is making a big-time icase with back-to-back games of at least 40 points and a streak of 15 jstraight games of 20 points or more. Said coach Jim Lynam: "All season Jyou could pencil him in for 20 points Jand seven or eight rebounds. Lately, Jthe numbers are up to 25 points and il2 rebounds." And while Howard is She main free agent the Bullets want Jjto keep, there's going to be considerable interest in Marquette's Jjim McDvaine, who blocked 18 shots Jin three games after Gheorghe Muresan was hurt and is 10th in the 'league in blocks.

i As for the Bullets, missing Chris JWebber, Mark Price and Robert Pack most of the season, General Manager JJohn Nash says, "I look at Orlando Chicago as being the best teams tin the East for the next couple of Jjyears. I'm not suggesting we can't Jplay with them, because we can if jhealthy. I think we've got a good tchance of being better than everybody If we can keep this group together, I think we're one of the best teams in the league." Better late than not at all: Making a late, late, but very impressive 'run for most-improved player is Acie Earl, the flop of flops as No. 19 pick in the 1993 draft. iThought to be Robert Parish's heir in 'Boston, the 6-10 Earl scored 66 points all of last season for the Celtics, and 'then was let go in expansion to Toronto, which played him little until about two weeks ago.

In seven games since then, Earl has averaged 22.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and blocks and led Toronto in scoring four straight games before getting Jonly 14 Friday. He scored 28, 25, 26 and 40 in those four games and the 40 came against the Celtics. Haley finally 1 activated but doesn't play There was one disappointment Saturday bigger than the Bulls losing just their second game at home this season and failing to tie the 1985-86 Boston Celtics' record of 401 at home: Jack Haley failing to make his iirst appearance tne season. "I wanted that 40-1 bad," said Michael Jordan. "But what I really wanted was Jack Haley to i get in the game, see what hej would do, see how the fans would respond." Haley, who hadn't played all season, was activated Friday in what Bulls coach Phil Jackson I called "a humanitarian gesture.

"He's put in a lot of work all year and this was a reward," said Jackson, adding that Haley 1 wouldn't make the playoff ros-1 ter. But Haley, ever the remained hopeful. "Stranger things have hap- pened," said Haley. "I'm not the front-runner but I bring an ele- ment to the team no one else brings very physical play and I think we need that in the playoffs. "For me being activated means a lot.

There's been a lot of controversy and disappointment for me this year. I've felt it's important to be a part of the greatest team in history and to get out and show people I'm not Dennis' Rodman baby-sitter. I never have been. I've been a basketball player from Day One." Haley was greeted with "Welcome Back, Rudy" over his locker stall and cobwebs and dust on his uniform with Jordan chanting "Rudy, Rudy" in the trainers' room. Miller's problem: TNT was reporting Friday and Saturday from Reggie Miller's sister Cheryl that Miller would be out of the playoffs after eye surgery, but the Pacers said they were unaware of that.

"The doctor said he can do some physical activity after seven days," said Pacers coach Larry Brown, "and then when the double vision went away he could play. He says he still has a little double vision, but I believe Reggie will do everything he can to come back." Sam Smith Pacers 100, Bulls 99 Imfana Mn FG-A FT-A Reb A PF Pts McKey D.Davis Smite Workmn Jackson Pierce Johnson A. Davis Best Feirell Hoiberg 25 6-8 35 6-12 35 5-11 13 1.3 32 4-8 16 2-5 12 1-4 23 2-5 21 6-8 14 3-9 14 1-1 C-0 0-2 4-10 5-9 7-1 1 1-7 0-0 4-4 6 0- 0 1- 3 0-0 0-4 1-2 3-6 4-11 1-2 O-l OO 04 0-2 0-0 Totals 37-74 26-4111-391516 100 Percentages: FG .500, FT .634. Three-point goals: 0-2, .000 (Workman 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Team rebounds: 15.

Blocked shots: 3 (D.Davis, Smits, Hoiberg). Turnovers: 17 (McKey 4, Smits 4, Jackson 3, A.Dave 2, Best 2, D.Davis, Pierce). Steals: 14 (Jackson 4, D.Davis 3, Pierce 2, McKey, Smits, A.Davis, Ferretl, Hoioerg). BULLS Mn FG-A FT-A Reb A PF Pts Rodman Kukoc Longley Pippen Jordan Edwards Kerr Buechler Brown Salley Simpkns 26 3-4 31 8-13 24 3-7 30 5-11 31 9-23 14 2-5 22 2-9 19 4-6 21 2-9 17 2-3 5 0-0 04 7-15 3 3 0-2 2-4 5 4 0-0 4-6 14 OO 2-4 3 0 4-5 0-2 6 4 3-4 2-3 2 6 04 00 1 3 0-0 0-4 0 1 1- 2 1-2 6 3 0-0 4-7 0 2 0-0 Ol 0 1 Totals 40-90 8-13 22-482731 99 Percentages: FG .444, FT .615. Three-point goals: 1 1-25, .440 (Kukoc 4-7, Buechler 2-2, Kerr 2-5, Jordan 2-5, Pippen 1-4, Brown 02).

Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 6 (Salley 2, Longley, Jordan, Edwards, Brown). Turnovers: 19 (Pippen 5, Rodman 4, Jordan 3, Salley 3, Longley 2, Kukoc, Brown). Steals: 10 (Longley 3, Pippen 3, Kukoc, Jordan, Buechler, Brown). Technical foul: Illegal defense, 3:35 second.

Indiana BULLS 27 25 25 23100 30 20 27 22 99 23.784. 2:27. Officials: Tommy" Nunez, Ken Mauer, Hue Hollins. a Blaylock made four three-pointers in the game and also had six steals, five assists and five rebounds. 4 New Jersey was led by Jaysoh Williams, who scored a career-high 35 points.

Atlanta (45-36) is tied with Detroit for the sixth playoff spot and is one game behind New York for fifth. In Sunday's season finales, the Hawks are at Miami, Detroit plays host to Milwaukee and New York travels to Boston. In any tiebreaker scenario, Atlanta would win out over the Knicks and Pistons. Jazz 104, Kings 92: Karl Mai- one scored 18 points in just 23 minutes and Utah tied its second-best season-win total of 55 in Salt Lake City. Summaries, Page 15 The Bulls' Michael Jordan slams Record Starters rest as bid to win 40 at home fails By Melissa Isaacson Tribune Staff Writer "Come on, Mike," Phil Jackson called down the Bulls bench.

"Finish this, OK?" It wasn't exactly a question, but not a demand either. Scottie Pippen, with warmup jacket on, and Dennis Rodman, with shoe off, remained rooted to their chairs. There were 4 minutes 29 seconds remaining in Saturday's game with Indiana, the Bulls trailed by three, and if they weren't exactly ambivalent, there did not appear to be a great deal of urgency to win the final home game of the season. "Don't ask me why Phil kept Michael out so long," said Indiana coach Larry Brown. "Maybe he didn't want to match him up with Fred Hoiberg." "I wanted to go for it," said Jackson.

So did Jordan, who scored five of the Bulls' final eight points only to watch longtime Bulls nemesis and lead official Hue Hollins whistle him for a Bulls Continued from Page 1 head-butting and all that stuff, but I had to laugh it off. It was a call that never should have happened. But forget about the terrible call at the end and see if we can go into the playoffs Sunday with a win." Because the Bulls know when they open the playoffs at home Friday night against the Miami Heat, there will be no rest like Saturday, and no accepting smiles over lost games. "We'll be jumping right into fire with Miami and Pat Riley," said Jordan. "He's experienced in the postseason and hell have his team motivated and defense-ori foul on Eddie Johnson with just five-tenths of a second remaining.

Johnson converted the first free throw to seal the Pacers' 100-99 victory and dash the Bulls attempt to tie the NBA record for best home mark (40-1) set by the 1985-86 Boston Celtics. "I think the team wanted it," Jackson said of the record, "but it was something that wasn't within our grasp." "I wanted that really badly," said Jordan. "That would have been another notch in our belt. But I just wanted to continue to win at home. I don't want to give any teams any added motivation." The Bulls willl enter the playoffs Friday night against Miami with home-court advantage throughout.

They go in with home losses only to Charlotte and Indiana, both coming in the last two weeks. "There is definitely a psychological advantage," said Steve Kerr. "You put together a great record and the opposing team comes in and they have to won-, der if they can win. On the other hand, a lot of good teams end up losing on their home floor in the playoffs and wiping it right out. So who knows?" No one was overly thrilled ented.

"But he doesn't play. We don't have to worry about him. We have to go out and play basketball, play our game. "We're starting fresh. The season is over and done with and I'm sure they'll feel they have nothing to lose by being eighth seed so they'll have a lot of momentum and confidence." The Bulls would like to get a bit of that back Sunday after falling into a game they hoped would be easy.

The Pacers, without injured Reggie Miller took a 52-50 half-time lead and were leading by three with just under five minutes left when Jackson, drifting all game between resting the starters and trying to win, put with Saturday's performance. In a hard-fought game in which Jackson was able to give the starters ample rest, they shot just 44 percent and committed 19 turnovers while allowing the Pacers to shoot 50 percent But the Bulls finish the regular season with United Center statistics still bound to intimidate. In 41 games, the Bulls averaged 107 points while holding their opponents to 89.9, a winning margin of 17 points per game. They also shot an average of 48.9 percent per game at home. Saturday's nationally televised contest may not exactly have had playoff atmosphere, but Jordan's fear may have been partly confirmed in that the Pacers, locked into the third seed in the postseason, walked out feeling pretty good about themselves.

"We were happy when they brought Michael back in with four minutes to go," Johnson said. "Then if we won, we knew it would really count. We know the Eastern Conference championship is coming through this building." "The great thing about the NBA is that there's another game tomorrow," said Pippen. "The best thing," said Jordan, "is that it wasn't a Game 6 or Game 7 in the playoffs." Jordan back in. "We had an opportunity to win and I wanted to go for it" said Jacksoa With Jordan and Toni Kukoc, with 20 points, back in the game, the Bulls missed seven straight shots as the Pacers took a 99-91 lead with 1:58 left But then Jordan hit a three, Kukoc hit a three and Jordan a jumper to tie the game at 99 with 50.3 seconds left.

Each team missed again before the Pacers got the ball to Johnson for a desperation 20-footer in which Jordan leaped up to block the shot and "It was an interesting finale," said Jacksoa "It seems like history repeats itself. I think someone must have a death wish or something." NBA roundup Chris Mills had 18 for Allan Houston led the Pistons with 26 points. The Cavaliers won despite scoring just one point in the last 4Vi minutes. They took a 74-68 lead on a dunk by Michael Cage with 4:45 to play, then didn't score again until Brandon made a free throw with :00.2 left He missed the second foul shot intentionally, giving the Pistons no time to get off a shot. The Cavs are yielding an average of 88.5 points a game, more than a point below the NBA record of 89.7 allowed by Syracuse in 1954-55.

Hawks 121, Nets 99: Christian Laettner and Mookie Blaylock scored 20 points apiece as the Hawks outscored New Jersey 34-15 in the third quarter in Cavs steal one, clinch 4th in East IPacers rely on Sonics connection ith Reggie Miller out for at least the first round of the playoffs, the burden is fa'ling to Indiana's Sonics connection to get tne pac- SUNDAY'S GAME CaHs at Mets TVRAdO Noon, SportsChannel; WMAQ-AM 670. SEASON SERIES Bulls lead 3-0. LAST GAME Bulls won 103-86 March 13 in the United Center. QUICK LOOK This is a big game for the reserves as coach Phil Jackson tries to shape up his playoff roster, which is du? on Monday. Such fuss has been made out of the Bulls' record setting number of victories and dominance at home, lost in the shuffle is their impressive road record.

PLAYER TO WATCH Bulls forward John Salley. This is his last chance to secure a postseason roster spot. -v Chicago tnbune From Tribune News Services There could have been no more appropriate way for the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs. On the verge of setting an NBA record for defense, the Cavs beat the Detroit Pistons 75-73 Saturday in Cleveland when Bobby Phills stripped the ball from Grant Hill with 1.1 seconds left, giving Cleveland the fourth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. "It was fitting that the game ended on a defensive play," Terrell Brandon said.

"That's been our trademark all year." Cleveland will be host to New York or Atlanta on Thursday in the opener of the best-of-five first round. Detroit will open on the road against Orlando or Indiana. Phills scored 21 points and once the ball went up we did everything we could to win. It got out that we were volatile, but that was good for the team. We had 12 guys on the roster who deserved to play and weren't afraid to say so." McKey, by the way, is the only player in the league to start for conference finalists the last three seasons.

"I feel good just to have gotten there three years in a row," McKey said. "But it is frustrating knowing you're one game away all were seventh-game losses. I feel like in any of those years if we had won one more game, the team I was on had a very good chance of winning the championship." "Eddie and we're on the way out of the league," noted Pierce, who along with Johnson has to replace Miller's scoring. "We want to go out with another championship. We both bring scoring and experience.

We both have good work ethics." Sam Smith through. tl The connection is ex-SuperSonics Derrick McKey, Ricky Pierce and Eddie The three were part of the last team to defeat the Houston in a playoff series, the 1992-93 Seattle team that lost to Phoenix in Jlhe seventh game of the Western Conference finals. Not that they aren't glad to be Pacers, but they all still wonder what inight have been if they had stayed, Seattle be wondering if it could get by the first round of the playoffs? "I think we would have won two Jtitles if they kept us together," said Johnson. "We talk about it all the time. You don't get that close often.

It was frustrating because it was a very "talented team. We were volatile, but.