Jordan Delivers Everything but Knockout Punch

After Michael Jordan finally returned from the air space just beneath the Forum ceiling, where he could gaze down upon heads pretty (Darryl Hannah and Debra Winger) and bald (Don Rickles and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and funny (Bill Murray and Garry Shandling), he trotted past another courtside heavyweight, Mike Tyson.

“That’s just like a knockout,” Jordan said to the boxer after his most spectacular solo riff of the night, a left-to-right jacknife jam on the baseline that caused the Forum to tilt into temporary insanity.

Well, yes--and no. That dunk--along with the rest of Jordan’s 22-point fourth-quarter explosion--may have been delivered with all the force of a Tyson right. But the Lakers, unlike any of Tyson’s opponents, not only were still standing at the end, they were clear winners by TKO over the Chicago Bulls, 110-101, Tuesday night.

Jordan finished with 39 points and sent his Laker shadow, Michael Cooper, to the bench with six fouls. But by the time Jordan finally went off, the Lakers had all but put away the Bulls, opening a 20-point lead, 83-63, with 56 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Bulls closed to within four, 101-97, on a hanging Jordan jumper with 2:32 to go, but Magic Johnson, who knows a little something about what it takes to turn on a crowd--and win, sliced through three Bulls for a driving layup and foul. Jordan went behind his back for a dribble-drive and basket, but Johnson answered with a running hook that knocked the Bulls through the ropes.

“They (the Bulls) know that if they can keep it close, Jordan can always win close games for them,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “But having to come back from 18 and 19 down, that’s too much.”

Even for Jordan, who started out slow--just 3 of 9 shots for 11 points in the first half--and finished with a kick worthy of Secretariat.

“He has the best finishes there ever was,” Magic Johnson said.

Cooper wasn’t around for that finish, having drawn three fouls in the span of 43 seconds in the third quarter, then picking up the disqualifier with 4:24 to go, when he fouled Jordan from behind.

“They say I got him with the body,” Cooper said.

He looked down at his 175-pound frame.

“What body?”

The same body that stuck to Jordan like an industrial-strength adhesive.

“Between myself, the greatest defensive player, and Michael Jordan, the greatest offensive player, I’d say we came to a standoff while I was in there,” Cooper said. “I think he knows now I can play defense and it’s not a gimme.”

Jordan, who prides himself on defense as well, had left the impression that Cooper was named the league’s top defensive player on reputation alone, although the Bull guard said Tuesday that was not his intention.

Cooper said the Lakers took a relatively straightforward tack on containing Jordan.

“We played him straight up, with about a man and a half,” Cooper said. “We tried to run him into what Coach Riley likes to call a wall.”

For three quarters, that strategy worked well. The Bulls shot under 38% in the first half, which ended with the Lakers ahead by 7, 55-48, and not much better in the third, which ended with the Laker leading 83-67.

But then Jordan scored 14 of the Bulls’ next 20 points--fallaway jumpers, a double-pump scoop layup, free throws--but still no dunks. For a time, it seemed the night’s most spectacular jam would belong to Laker reserve center Mike Smrek, who threw down a left-hander off an alley-oop pass by Johnson.

But with 2:59 left to play, Jordan finally produced what the celebrity set and everyone else had come to see, driving past Scott and tomahawking the ball threw with his right hand while dusting off the top of the backboard with his left.

“He’s just gifted,” said Scott, who scored 20 points when he, too, wasn’t hounding Jordan.

“From left to right, on misdirection plays, he’s one of the quickest guys you’ve ever seen. And it’s real deceptive, because he doesn’t look that quick.”

In the end, however, Jordan wasn’t quick enough to stutter-step a loss, the Bulls’ second in the last two nights.

The Lakers, meanwhile, ran their record to 34-8 with their 23d win in the last 25 games and 13th straight at home.

This one was just a little sweeter coming against Jordan.

“It’s like when you were a kid and the circus came to town,” Mychal Thompson said. “I couldn’t sleep all night, I was so excited about him coming here. He’s one heck of a basketball player.”

Imagine what he will be when he has a team that grows up around him. After Jordan’s 39, the next highest Chicago scorer had 13. One starter, Rory Sparrow, was scoreless. Another, Charles Oakley, had 2 in 20 minutes. Oakley, the league’s leading rebounder, also had just four rebounds in 20 minutes.

“We have a lot more weapons than they have,” Johnson said.