Cavaliers Even Score With Bulls : NBA playoffs: Funny thing happens to Chicago on its way to a sweep. Cleveland wins, 107-81.

After the Chicago Bulls defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers by 14 points in the opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, Bull fans taunted the Cavaliers by chanting “sweep.”

Better put away those brooms.

The Cavaliers humiliated the defending NBA champions, 107-81, Thursday night at Chicago Stadium to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

“That was the worst we’ve played in the five years I’ve been here,” Bull forward Horace Grant said. “But we’ll be back. We didn’t become champions by folding after one game.”

Booed off the court after missing their first 13 shots, the Bulls trailed by 16 points at the end of the first quarter, 26 points at halftime and 27 points at the end of the third quarter, at which point Jack Nicholson departed from his courtside seat.

The rest of the Chicago Stadium soon followed after the Bulls fell behind by 35 points early in the fourth quarter.

“I never sat through an exhibition of basketball like that in my life,” Bull Coach Phil Jackson said after watching his team shoot 14.3% in the first quarter. “This team deserved to be booed when they came off the floor. I just yelled a lot, I didn’t join in the booing.”

Michael Jordan, who missed practice Wednesday because of flu, was held to 20 points. He was averaging 35.2 points in the playoffs.

Jordan, who missed his first five shots, made only two of 13 shots in the first half and wound up making seven of 22. He also had six turnovers.

The Bulls announced after the game that Jordan wouldn’t be able to address the media because he was being treated for an upper respiratory infection.

However, he told a Bull publicist that the Bulls will rebound from the loss.

“Cleveland played some outstanding basketball tonight,” Jordan said in a statement issued by the team. “They came to play and we’re going to be ready to play (in Game 3 Saturday). We have confidence in ourselves and we’ll be ready for them. We’ve had confidence all year long and I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll regroup.”

Jordan wasn’t the only Bull who played poorly as Chicago shot 37.1%.

Forward Scottie Pippen, who had averaged 23 points in his last two games, scored 11 points, missing 10 of 14 shots. Center Bill Cartwright, who had scored his 1992 playoff high of 12 points in the series opener, failed to score after missing the second half because of a back injury.

“It was embarrassing,” Pippen said. “We dumped all over ourselves. We put ourselves in that position and now we have to go there to get it back.”

Criticized in the Chicago media for being soft in the first game of the series, the Cavaliers looked much better on offense and defense Thursday.

“If you’re cream puffs or marshmallows, you don’t win 57 games in the regular season,” Cavalier Coach Lenny Wilkens said.

Center Brad Daugherty scored 28 points and guard Mark Price added 23 points, including 21 in the first half, as Cleveland beat Chicago for only the third time in their last 18 meetings.

“I think we played under extenuating circumstances in the first game,” Price said. “We were coming off a tough seven-game series and we had to travel. I think we got unfairly maligned.”

One of the few teams that doesn’t double team Jordan, assigning guard Craig Ehlo to check him, the Cavaliers changed their strategy after Jordan scored 33 points in Game 1. Jordan has had some of his best games against Cleveland, scoring a career-high 69 points against the Cavaliers two years ago.

The Cavaliers used a trapping defense, with an extra defender helping out against Jordan on the perimeter.

However, Ehlo claimed that the Cavaliers didn’t alter their defensive alignment.

“I didn’t play Jordan any differently tonight,” Ehlo said. “He just couldn’t make his shots. There’s no reason to double-team Jordan if I can force him to take bad shots.

“I didn’t notice if Jordan was sick tonight. If he was (sick) I think he should have stayed home from school.”