Surely, the Bulls Missed One Shot

CHICAGO —  I do remember the Bulls missing a shot. No, really. Michael Jordan hopped, skipped, jumped and missed one from about, oh, 18 feet. Yeah. He missed that sucker. The ball went in and out and . . . wait a minute. That was Sunday. I don’t remember the Bulls missing any shots Wednesday night. They must have. The box score says they missed 31. I can’t recall any. Can you recall any? The box score says the Bulls won Game 2 of the NBA finals over the Lakers, 107-86. No, that must be wrong. The Bulls beat the Lakers, but I’m pretty sure the score was 207-86.

No wonder they call them Bulls’-eyes.

Let’s see. Misses. Somebody must have missed. I remember a shot that Michael (Air) Jordan made after receiving clearance to land from O’Hare. I remember shots that John (Never Leaves the Ground) Paxson made from somewhere near Skokie. I remember shots that Horace Grant made, that Bill Cartwright made, even one that Los Angeles homeboy Scott Williams made. (It’s not his fault; it’s his job.)

I’m not positive, but I believe Coach Phil Jackson stripped down to his underwear and entered the game to make two sweeping hooks. Everybody in Chicago Stadium scored. I think Denzel Washington and Spike Lee scored. I think Irv Kupcinet and Jake and Elwood, the Bulls Brothers, scored.

Well, the Lakers can take it. They could afford to lose this one. And if you have to lose one, you might as well really lose one. The Lakers won’t sweep this series in four games, as Jack Ramsay, former coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, predicted on ESPN. But if the Lakers are smart--and they are--they will win Games 3, 4 and 5 in Inglewood so they won’t have to come back here to Michael’s Madhouse.

Game 2 began innocently enough, with Vlade Divac scoring eight of L.A.’s first 18 points and Downtown Sammy Perkins dropping another of those long bombs of his. I mean, it wasn’t as though the Bulls kicked tail from start to finish. With four minutes remaining in the first half, Jordan had two points. Of course, he was only playing possum.

Suddenly, everything changed. Something got into Paxson, the Air apparent, who forms the other half of Chicago’s backcourt backbone and has about as much in common with Michael Jordan as I do with William Shakespeare. About the nicest thing you can say about John Paxson’s game is that he very rarely injures himself dunking.

But one thing Johnny can do is shoot, particularly when nobody is in his face, and as long as the Lakers have to keep double-occupying the space in Michael Jordan’s face, Paxson is going to keep getting passes from Jordan and is going to keep aiming jump shots--well, shots --at the hoop.

“I kept hitting my shots and they felt real good,” Paxson said afterward. Hey, nice color commentary, John. Mr. Quote, they call him.

All kidding aside, Paxson played a near-perfect game Wednesday night, at least for the 25 minutes he worked, and it should not go unmentioned that his Laker adversary, Byron Scott, got off exactly two shots. Paxson also had six assists, more than anybody on the Lakers except Earvin Johnson, and did not commit a turnover. Forgive the jokes, John; I know you can play.

It’s just that when you’re the other guard on a basketball team that employs Michael Jordan, well, it’s sort of like being Bo Jackson’s offensive tackle. You do a lot of the dirty work, but who the hell notices?

Let me tell you about one particular shot of Mr. Mike’s. If you didn’t see it, you will. It will be replayed on the 11 p.m. news, on video cassettes, on NBA highlight reels, on shoe commercials, on cereal commercials, on outer-space satellite transmissions from Jupiter in the 21st Century and in the minds of many who hadn’t seen anything like it since Julius Erving palmed a red, white and blue ball.

Jordan, the rocketeer, took flight from the painted lane, preparing to top off at about 500 feet and then slowly beginning his descent, making sure his seat back was fully upright and tray tables and seat belt firmly in place. Suddenly, Michael noticed that there were all sorts of Lakers in his way. So, he just hovered for a while, considering his options. He would have stayed up there 15 or 20 more seconds, but the shot clock would have expired.

“Oh, I know,” Michael must have thought, “I’ll just switch hands in mid-air and do one of those southpaw I’m Flying, Gravity-Defying, Friendly-Skying, My-Oh-Mying reverse double-pump twisting fingertip scoop shots.”

You know, just like the ones you work on in practice.

Horace Grant took one look at that one, wiped off his goggles and said: “I felt like I was 13 years old and watching Doctor J.”

He wasn’t. He was watching Mister J. Chicago’s Mister J, that is. Los Angeles has one, too. And Los Angeles also has the next three games. Winning them might be a wonderful idea. If this series comes back to Chicago, the whole country will be tuning in to see what that spectacular Johnny Paxson does next.

Supporting Cast

Michael Jordan got a lot of help from his friends in Game 2, after he and Scottie Pippen were the only Bulls to score more than six points in Game 1. Here’s how Chicago’s starters, besides Jordan, have fared in the first two games.

GAME1

PLAYER FGM FGA FTM FTA PTS Scottie Pippen 7 19 5 7 19 Horace Grant 3 8 0 0 6 Bill Cartwright 3 8 0 0 6 John Paxson 3 7 0 0 6 Totals 16 42 5 7 37 Pct. .380 .714

GAME 2

PLAYER FGM FGA FTM FTA PTS Scottie Pippen 8 16 4 4 20 Horace Grant 10 13 0 0 20 Bill Cartwright 6 9 0 0 12 John Paxson 8 8 0 0 16 Totals 32 46 4 4 68 Pct. .696 1.000