Bulls Go Deep on Pistons : Eastern finals: Jordan scores only 22, but Chicago bench picks up slack in 94-83 victory.

The most suspect of the Chicago Bulls became the No. 1 suspects when the Detroit Pistons were defeated Sunday afternoon.

With a mortal 22-point day of Michael Jordan, Chicago flashed depth just when most people assumed they didn’t have anything more than a flicker beyond the starting five.

At a most opportune time, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the reserves played a critical role as the Bulls sank the Pistons, 94-83, before 18,676 at Chicago Stadium.

Detroit’s is supposed to be the best big-game bench since Johnny. And the Pistons are used to subduing the other team with defense.

The Bulls, who took both the Central Division and the home-court advantage from them, seem to have sponged a few other things.

Detroit had a 13-point opening quarter and a 37-point first half. And when things got close from there, Cliff Levingston, Craig Hodges, B.J. Armstrong and Will Perdue made the Pistons play catch-up in a series they were too tired to begin in the first place.

“Everyone was getting tired of everyone blaming the bench,” said Levingston, who added the depth of a wading pool during the regular season after being acquired from Atlanta as a backup on the front line, but had eight points and four rebounds--three offensive--Sunday. “If we’d lose, people would blame us by saying we didn’t have enough of a bench. But if the bench was supposed to be the downfall of the Bulls, it’s also going to be the uplifting part.”

Added Jordan, who had only seven points after halftime and finished six of 15 from the field: “Our second team outplayed their second team in the third quarter. That was the difference.”

Actually, split the praise evenly. Someone besides the reserves had to do this to the Piston starting five: Dennis Rodman, five points and nine rebounds in 37 minutes; Bill Laimbeer, four points and one-of-seven shooting in a foul-plagued 19 minutes; James Edwards, eight points and three rebounds in 25 minutes; Joe Dumars, nine points on three-of-10 shooting in 36 minutes; and Isiah Thomas, 11 points and eight assists in 38 minutes.

Detroit got 55% of its offense from two substitutes: Mark Aguirre with 25 points and Vinnie Johnson with 21.

But after the Pistons climbed out of a 20-8 hole in the first quarter to take the lead temporarily late in the third, the sudden stars came out. From 33 seconds left in the third quarter to 6:06 remaining in the game, the Bulls outscored Detroit, 15-7, without getting so much as a free throw from a starter. When that unexpected charge finally subsided, Chicago was up, 81-72, never to be challenged again.

Coach Phil Jackson opened the fourth quarter with a lineup of Levingston, Hodges, Armstrong and Perdue, with one starter, Horace Grant.

“You have to be instinctive,” Jackson said. “Fortunately, I stayed with it long enough for Hodges to hit the three-point shot to give us the nine-point lead.”

The Pistons also subscribe to the theory that one of the reasons they got beat was because they were beat. They didn’t defeat Boston to advance until late Friday night. Chicago had been off since Tuesday.

Neither side was terribly impressed with the caliber of play, which made it all the more disheartening for the Pistons. They played poorly and still felt they had a chance.

“If I hadn’t seen the (Boston) game, I would have bet we played an overtime game Friday,” Coach Chuck Daly said. “We looked a little sluggish, a little slow afoot and struggled to get something going with out lineup. Even with all that, we hung around. They (the Bulls) looked a little over-rested.

“I thought it was a game for us to steal, and I truly thought they were in position to lose because they didn’t play that well.”

Said Aguirre: “Nobody was at their best, as far as I’m concerned. They played all right, but we had a few problems that hurt us a little bit and is uncharacteristic for our team.”

Eastern Conference Notes

Game 2 is at Chicago Tuesday night. . . . The Bulls outrebounded the Pistons, 43-26, led by Horace Grant with 10. . . . Detroit Coach Chuck Daly, asked what kind of job he thought his team did on Michael Jordan: “Reasonably well. But you always have to hope and pray.” Jordan on Jordan’s performance: “I didn’t have a great game or even a good game.” . . . Someone asked Piston Dennis Rodman if his brief, but uneventful, shouting match with Jordan in the first half may have been a Chicago ploy to get fired up. “What the hell does he need motivation for?” Rodman said, laughing. “He’s going to get his 30.”