NBA PLAYOFFS : Lost Weekend in Chicago Could Haunt the Knicks

NEW YORK —  The New York Knicks have professed to have forgotten the Lost Weekend in Chicago, when they were sliced and diced by the majestic Michael Jordan and sabotaged by their own ineptitude.

Ultimately, that combination put them one defeat from clearing their lockers for the summer. However forgettable those back-to-back efforts were, they should not be forgotten.

If the Knicks do not remember Chicago, Tuesday night’s Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series could be their last. Remember all that went awry. Remember it so much and so vividly that it becomes a deterrent from a repeat performance in Game 5.

The point of concern during Saturday’s 111-88 rout and the 106-93 whipping on Sunday was the “defense,” if you call it that. The full-court press, vaunted early in the regular season, was nothing more than the impetus for an Air Jordan exhibition.

And the half-court defense, which was so effective in the Knicks’ series win in Game 2 because they trapped Jordan at each and every turn, was ineffective during the Lost Weekend. Why? For some unforgiving reason, the game’s most proficient scorer, Jordan, was left to be defended by Gerald Wilkins or Trent Tucker or some other unfortunate sole--one-on-one.

Which is to say he was at Jordan’s mercy. Which is to say the Knicks were done. Jordan lit up the Knicks for 40 and 47 points, all the while opening the door for the questioning of the Knicks’ defensive strategies.

Question: Why, in the name of playoff defense, would Rick Pitino institute the full-court press Saturday in Game 3, after the Knicks had held Jordan to 15 points in Game 2 with a trapping man-to-man defense?

Jordan simply passed over the double-team in the backcourt, split the defenders and ran up the floor. He’d then receive a return pass in the middle of a wide-open court and create at his luxury.

Question: Why not, in the half-court defense, double-team Jordan each time he gets the ball, especially in the fourth quarter? Remember how Jordan simply dribbled the ball at the top of the key against Mark Jackson or Tucker or whomever down the stretch, then blew past him into the lane or took the jumper or dished off to a wide-open teammate under the basket?

Wilkins remembers. “You can’t guard him one-on-one,” Wilkins said. “He gets into the lane too easily. Then there’s nothing you can do. It has to be a team thing. We have to get back to trap, trap, trap; deny, deny, deny, like we did in Game 2.” Tucker said, “We have to make someone else beat us.”

Pitino, who said he pressed Saturday to wear down Jordan for Sunday, is not being outcoached by Doug Collins. He’s outcoaching himself.

Pitino has said game-to-game changes are necessary in the playoffs. But if a phase of the game works as well as did the constant trapping of Jordan, there is no sense in changing unless the Bulls show they can beat it. Do you think the Pistons changed strategies in last year’s playoffs after they discovered an effective way to slow Jordan? You can bet your season tickets they didn’t.

The Bulls should have been making the changes, not Pitino. Now, the Knicks are being beaten by the one man they said they would not let beat them.

Granted, if they had shot better than 38.8% during the Lost Weekend and had not committed silly, untimely turnovers, Jordan’s exploits might not have been so crucial. But they didn’t and they were.

Said Jackson: “I still think we’re the better team.”

Maybe. Maybe not. Jordan did beat the Cavs by himself, didn’t he? And since the 76ers ended the Knicks’ 26-game home win streak March 16, the Knicks are--ready for this?--14-14 overall, including the playoffs.

But the opinion here is that they will come back and win this series. Certainly, it is a Sisyphean task. But it all goes back to remembering what did not work during the Lost Weekend. And how to correct it.