Grant Gets Down and Dirty, 76ers Just Down : NBA playoffs: He has 22 points and 11 rebounds as Bulls take 3-1 lead with 101-85 victory.

Horace Grant does much of the dirty work for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, but doesn’t get nearly as much credit.

Grant had 22 points and 11 rebounds Sunday as the Bulls took a 3-1 lead in their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 101-85 victory over Philadelphia 76ers.

The Bulls can reach the conference finals for the third consecutive season with a victory in Game 5 Tuesday night at Chicago.

Only four teams in NBA history have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a seven-game series. The last was Boston against Philadelphia in 1981.

“One of the things I wanted to establish was going to the boards,” said Grant, whose 22 points were his playoff high.

“I didn’t do a very good job Friday night (in a 99-97 Bulls’ loss). I wanted to be more aggressive and they didn’t block me out as much. We wanted one win here and we got it. It will be great to end it in Chicago.”

Jordan had 25 points and 12 assists, and Scottie Pippen had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls.

But it was Grant who showed the way with 13 points and six offensive rebounds in the first half as Chicago built a 52-38 halftime lead and led by at least 10 points the rest of the way. “They crushed us on the offensive boards; and at the other end of the court, we could not hit a shot,” Philadelphia Coach Jim Lynam said.

The Bulls had only a 44-42 rebounding edge, including a 17-14 advantage on the offensive glass, but those numbers are deceptive. Philadelphia got a lot of those during a lengthy garbage time in the second half.

When it counted, the Bulls were often getting two, three and sometimes four shots at a time. Philadelphia was getting one shot.

Jordan, who at times showed signs of the chronic tendinitis in his left knee, made only 11 of 27 shots, but he played torrid defense against Hersey Hawkins, the 76ers’ best perimeter shooter, holding him to eight shots and 15 points.

Jordan said the knee bothered him, but not as much as in Friday night’s loss. What really hurt him was Hawkins’ game-winning three-pointer Friday.

“It hurts when your man wins the game, and I wanted to play him as tough as I could today,” Jordan said.

Charles Barkley, who had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the 76ers, said: “We did not play a good game. We struggled a little bit with our shots. It is going to be an uphill battle. We know that.”

Barkley, who has been playing with a brace on his injured left knee, ripped off the brace midway through the final period and finished the game without it. “The brace didn’t have anything to do with the game,” he said.

Philadelphia made 37% from the field in the first half and wound up at 44.7%. The 76ers’ 85 points were their lowest in the playoffs since May 21, 1982, when they scored 75 against Boston’s 88.

The closest Philadelphia got after the first quarter was eight points three times in the second quarter. Chicago led, 52-35, with 1:06 left in the half after an 11-2 surge.

Philadelphia pulled to within 10 on the first two baskets of the second half, but Pippen and Grant made baskets and the Bulls led, 73-57, after three quarters. The 76ers never recovered as Chicago led by 23 points in the final quarter.