No Bull, Lakers Get Pistons Again : After Smoke Clears, ‘Gangsters’ Have 103-94 Victory in Game 6

By evening’s end, one Chicago Bull was in a hospital, the Chicago Bull had re-aggravated a groin injury, the highest-scoring Detroit Piston had strained a hamstring, two other Pistons had bloody mouths, and one particularly unpopular Piston was being cussed out by Chicago’s coach and called “a thug” and “a gangster” by the Bulls’ owner.

In war, there are casualties.

There also are victors, and spoils. The spoils in this case: Detroit, by virtue of Friday night’s 103-94 disposal of Chicago, wins the Eastern Conference championship and gets to play the Lakers--again--for the National Basketball Assn. title, beginning Tuesday night in Michigan.

Detroit is going for one in a row. It has never won the NBA title since the franchise left Ft. Wayne, Ind., in the 1950s.

The Pistons spotted the Bulls a 12-point lead in the first period, then came on like gangbusters--or gangsters, in some eyes--behind Isiah Thomas’ 33 points to eliminate Michael Jordan and his gang in the best-of-seven series, 4 games to 2. Jordan went out with 32 points and a limp because of his groin injury--his bid to play the Lakers for the championship put on hold for at least another year.

“It’ll be the bad guys in the black hats, us, against the good guys in the white hats, the Lakers,” said Piston center Bill Laimbeer. “This time, let’s hope the bad guys win.”

A bad guy is exactly what Laimbeer was being called after Friday’s game.

“He’s a thug. He’s a gangster. He shouldn’t be in the league,” said Bull owner Jerry Reinsdorf, not the only Laimbeer-hater in the crowd of 18,676 at Chicago Stadium that booed the Piston player’s every move.

It did not aid Chicago’s cause that forward Scottie Pippen, the team’s No. 2 scorer during the season, played only 62 seconds. Pippen caught an elbow to the head--”another cheap shot by that . . . Laimbeer,” Bull Coach Doug Collins said--and was taken to a nearby hospital with a possible concussion.

Seldom-used Brad Sellers did an admirable job in Pippen’s place, scoring 16 points, but once again, Chicago’s offense was left up to Magic Michael.

Jordan this time took 26 shots--not eight, as he did in Game 5--and made one shot that will be shown on highlight shows for years to come. Did he stop passing off? Not at all. Jordan also had 13 assists.

However, human being that he is, Jordan also committed eight turnovers, more than half of Chicago’s total. He also made only 5 of 12 free throws, did not have an offensive rebound and was guilty of five fouls, which kept him from being as aggressive as he might otherwise have been late in the game.

Collins took him out with 23--Jordan’s number--seconds left in the game, to a thunderous ovation. The coach also used that moment to dash down to Detroit’s bench and give high-fives to everybody on it. Laimbeer was still in the game at the time, so Collins did not have to be choosy about whose hands he slapped.

Jordan said: “We desperately wanted to go forward, but Detroit is a great team. All I can say is, it was a great series and a great lesson to build on. We got to this point, and there is nothing wrong with dreaming, so I’ll just spend the summer dreaming about next year.”

Not blaming him a bit for thinking that way was Detroit Coach Chuck Daly, who said: “The Bulls may be the team of the future. They may be the team to beat in our division next year.”

Intending to pull out all the stops to keep the series alive, Chicago brought in everybody from Jordan’s good friend, filmmaker Spike Lee, to an NBA semi-legend, The Original (as he bills himself) Dancin’ Harry, who long ago provided timeout entertainment for the Washington Bullets and the New York Knicks.

What the Bulls really needed was some of the offense that Detroit had been denying them and everybody else. For a time, they had it going, but in the end, the Pistons had kept an opponent under 100 points for the 15th straight game.

Chicago overcame the loss of Pippen to take a 16-6 lead, with Jordan supplying two dunks, a beautiful assist to Horace Grant for a layup and a shot that will stay in eyewitnesses’ minds for a long, long time--a twisting, gravity-defying reverse layup over Laimbeer off a steal.

The Bulls went ahead by 26-14, with Sellers doing his part, scoring eight points.

Jordan, with a dozen already, took a brief rest at this point with 2:36 remaining in the first period.

If only he never had to rest at all.

Detroit went right out and ran off 12 straight points, making the score 26-26, and Chicago was never the same.

When Craig Hodges hit a three-point jump shot with 8:34 left in the half, it was Chicago’s first basket since the 3:58 mark in the first period. That’s how much the team’s offense suffers without Jordan.

Hodges ended up with 15 points, while Horace Grant had 13 points and as many rebounds. For Detroit, nobody came close to Thomas’ 33 points, but Dennis Rodman did his job on the boards, getting 15 rebounds.

Thomas suffered a pulled hamstring muscle in his right leg during the second quarter, so neither he nor Jordan was at his best during the second half. And still they easily led their teams in scoring.

Joe Dumars and John Salley of the Pistons each ended up with bloody mouths during the course of a very physical, almost violent game, and James Edwards was struck by a crumpled cup thrown by a fan. No one from Detroit was seriously hurt.

Thomas had 21 of his points in the second half, giving Detroit an outside attack to go with the dominating inside work of Rodman and Edwards. Daly moved Thomas to No. 2 guard in the second half, something he does periodically, and let Isiah shoot rather than quarterback the offense.

Detroit led by a basket at halftime, 49-47. In the third period, after Jordan missed two free throws, Laimbeer threw in a rare hook shot--sort of a ground hook--to give Detroit its largest lead to that moment, 62-57. By the end of the third period, the Pistons had widened their lead to nine, even with only one basket in the last 5 1/2 minutes.

The Bulls had a run left in them. Jordan completed a four-point play, two lay-ups around a missed free throw, and John Paxson followed with a three-point basket and a corner jumper for two. With 8:44 left, Chicago suddenly was within striking distance at 81-79, and the NBA’s loudest arena was rocking.

With a chance to tie, Jordan had his pocket picked by Dumars. The crowd settled down, and one-time hometown favorite Thomas rattled off six straight points for an 88-80 lead.

After that, Chicago never got closer than six.

Excited about another shot at a pro championship to go along with the national college title he won at Indiana, Thomas said: “When we lost that last game of the NBA Finals to the Lakers, people said: ‘Don’t worry, next year you’re going to have the best record in the NBA, you’re going to get to the finals and you’re going to win.’ Well, we’ve done two out of three.

Notes

Bill Laimbeer pleaded innocent to charges of causing Scottie Pippen’s head injury, claiming Pippen’s teammate, Horace Grant, hit him. Replays were inconclusive to some, but not to Chicago Coach Doug Collins, who said: “Laimbeer hit him right in the face with his left elbow, and Scottie ends up in the hospital.”

EASTERN CONFERENCE SERIES AT A GLANCE BULLS vs. PISTONS

Pistons win best-of-seven, 4-2

RESULTS

Game 1 Bulls 94, Pistons 88 Game 2 Pistons 100, Bulls 91 Game 3 Bulls 99, Pistons 97 Game 4 Pistons 86, Bulls 80 Game 5 Pistons 94, Bulls 85 Game 6 Pistons 103, Bulls 94