Knicks Have Thrown a Major Scare Into Bulls

The once-swaggering Chicago Bulls are staggering, and one more punch could knock into oblivion their hopes of winning a second NBA championship.

Ready to deliver the blow are the New York Knicks, who evened the best-of-7 Eastern Conference series at three games each with a 100-86 victory Thursday night in New York.

The final game will be played in Chicago Stadium on Sunday.

“They have the advantage of the home court,” said coach Pat Riley, who has rejuvenated the Knicks. “I’ve been in enough seven-game series and it’s always the adage that anything can happen. It’s one game now, no tears, no regrets. We have a team that believes it can win.”

The Bulls could have ended it with a victory Thursday night and they took a 70-68 lead going into the final quarter. Then they hit a wall and went scoreless for the next six minutes. Xavier McDaniel, John Starks and injured Patrick Ewing went wild, while Chicago’s 1-2 punch of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen went limp.

“It was a nightmare,” said Horace Grant. “We couldn’t get anything. We have two of the greatest scorers in the league in Michael and Scottie, and we just couldn’t score.”

McDaniel scored 11 of his 24 points in that period, Starks eight of his 24, and Ewing, hobbled by an ankle injury, 10 of his 27.

“We felt all along we could beat these guys,” said McDaniel.

“We always had confidence we could beat them, that’s the attitude we have to take into Game 7,” said Starks.

“This is what we’ve worked for and now we have to win one game,” said Ewing.

Despite the home-court advantage and two days to pull things together, the Bulls do not seem as confident as the Knicks.

“You have to hand it to their ability to rise to the occasion,” said coach Phil Jackson, who felt the Bulls were in position to end the series going into the fourth quarter. We played a very good third quarter and thought we had them at a standstill, shooting the ball like we expected to. But they came out on fire in the fourth quarter and had a fine defensive effort.”

Jordan, held to 21 points and only a 3-pointer in the final period, groped for an answer.

“They were fighting like cats and dogs and we just relaxed, I can’t explain why.”