Knicks Reveal Jordan to Be Mortal, Even Series

The New York Knicks accomplished what seemed nearly impossible Thursday night--turning Michael Jordan into merely another basketball player.

Jordan, averaging 36 points for his playoff career, scored a season-low 15 as the Knicks pulled even after two games of their best-of-7 National Basketball Assn. playoff series against the Chicago Bulls, 114-97.

Jordan missed 10 of 17 shots and three of four free throws.

“Our defense played Michael Jordan as well as it can be played,” Knick coach Rick Pitino said. “But I don’t know what was better, our offense or our defense. They were both spectacular.”

Patrick Ewing scored 23 points, Mark Jackson 20 and Kiki Vandeweghe 18 for the Knicks, who shot 57.3% to 43.5% for the Bulls. Jackson also had 16 assists.

“In the first game, the Knicks were on their heels, but in this game we rushed our offense and lost our poise,” said Jordan, the three-time NBA scoring champion whose worst performance during the regular season was 18 points on three occasions.

“We didn’t match their enthusiasm,” Jordan said. “They didn’t do anything different against me, they were just more aggressive on defense.”

“We knew we had to come out with fire,” Ewing said. “We kept that intensity throughout most of the game.”

The third and fourth games of the best-of-seven series will be played Saturday and Sunday in Chicago.

“We have to defend our home-court advantage that we got by winning the first game,” Jordan said. “We know it doesn’t mean as much in the playoffs, especially if we play the way we did tonight. But if we play well, the crowd can get into it.”

The Bulls, who were led by John Paxson with 16 points, trailed, 50-41, at halftime. But they closed within 51-48 on a three-point play by Jordan with 9:55 left in the third period.

Jordan was called for two fouls in the first three minutes of the half and sat out the rest of the third quarter with four fouls.

After Jordan left the game, Bull Scottie Pippen’s basket made the score 55-50 before the Knicks scored the next nine points for a 64-50 lead, their largest margin of the game to that point. The closest Chicago came after that was seven points.

“I hurt us by getting into foul trouble, but the guys hung in there and kept it close,” Jordan said.

“He had to sit for almost the whole quarter and he’s not used to that,” Pippen said. “It affected his game and the whole team’s.”