Smash Hits : If the Bulls and Red Wings Scratch Records of Lakers and Canadiens, They Can Thank Defense

By HELENE ELLIOTT

April 12, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A few weeks into the season, it was clear they would be the team to beat.

With a potent offense, stifling defense and world-class players at nearly every position, they toyed with opponents and accomplished what was considered impossible.

The Chicago Bulls? Yes.

The Detroit Red Wings? Correct too.

In a remarkable convergence, the top teams in the NBA and the NHL can break league victory records this season. The Red Wings on Wednesday tied the NHL record of 60, set by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, and have two games left. The Bulls (67-9) have six games to match the NBA record of 69 victories, set by the 1971-72 Lakers, and become the league’s first 70-game winner.

A number of common threads run through the teams’ success.

In the Bulls’ Phil Jackson and the Red Wings’ Scotty Bowman, both have visionary coaches who are good motivators, no small feat in an age of long-term, guaranteed player contracts. Both teams also have explosive offenses. Before playing the New Jersey Nets on Thursday, the Bulls led the NBA with an average of 105.4 points a game; the Red Wings (60-13-7) are third in the NHL with 315 goals, 3.9 a game.

The parallels include their success at home. The Red Wings are a league-leading 35-3-2 at Joe Louis Arena, and the Bulls are a daunting 37-1 at the United Center.

In addition, each made a trade this season that fueled their leap from good to record-caliber. After losing to Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals last spring, the Bulls acquired four-time NBA rebounding leader Dennis Rodman, who won two championships with the Detroit Pistons. The Red Wings, who had the NHL’s best record but couldn’t escape the New Jersey Devils’ defensive trap in the Stanley Cup finals, added center Igor Larionov, who played on the Russian Olympic and world champions of the 1980s.

But the most striking similarity is that both rank at or near the top of their leagues in several key team defensive categories and have players who have won individual awards for defensive prowess.

“Any team that’s going to be considered a great team--and clearly the Bulls are, although I don’t know much about hockey--is going to be a good defensive team,” said Jerry Reynolds, director of player personnel for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. “Look at the past NBA champions. Look at the Lakers with [Jerry] West, [Gail] Goodrich, [Wilt] Chamberlain. Chamberlain was the big guy in the middle and West was underrated defensively. Look at the Celtics, with [Larry] Bird, [Kevin] McHale, [Robert] Parish, or the [Bill] Russell era of the Celtics. Those teams were built on defense.”

Said Pierre Gauthier, general manager of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators: “Remember the great Montreal Canadien Stanley Cup teams. They won the Vezina [then given to the team with the lowest goals-against average] every year. You’ve got to give credit to the whole team and Scotty Bowman when you’ve got such a talented team that makes a commitment to defense. You have to put that talent together and convince them they have to make sacrifices.”

The Red Wings have a league-low 2.19 goals-against average, have given up the fewest shots (24.3 a game) and have killed a league-high 88.5% of their disadvantages. The Bulls lead the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage (.365), rank second in total rebounding percentage (.537), third in points-against (93.6), third in steals and have made the fourth-fewest turnovers.

Detroit’s leading scorer, Sergei Fedorov, was voted the NHL’s most valuable player and top defensive forward in 1994. Three-time MVP Michael Jordan, who leads Chicago and the NBA in scoring, has made the all-defensive team six times. So has Rodman, the league’s top rebounder. Scottie Pippen has four all-defensive team citations.

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch professed he would “rather watch paint dry than watch a hockey game,” but he knows some principles are universal.

“Defense is the common denominator for the best teams in almost every sport,” he said. “In baseball, it’s a team’s ERA. Look at football, and you’ll see the scores come down drastically in the playoffs. What won this year’s Super Bowl was two intercepted passes. Good defense can be the basis of your offense.”

Jimmy Devellano, Red Wing senior vice president, agreed it’s no coincidence his team and the Bulls are so solid on defense and so dominant.

“All good championship teams I’ve been associated with have been good defensively,” said Devellano, assistant general manager of the New York Islanders during most of their 1980-83 Cup run. “For us this year, some players have emerged and become better, and that’s helped our defense.”

The previous challenges to the Lakers’ record came from the 1972-73 Boston Celtics, who were 68-14; the 1985-86 Celtics, who were 67-15, and the 1991-92 Bulls, who were 67-15. The 1977 Canadiens (60-8-12) were threatened only by the 1978 Canadiens, who were 59-10-11. The Edmonton Oilers peaked at 57-18-5 in 1983-84 during their five-in-seven Cup run, which featured an overwhelming offense but was bolstered by standout defensive-minded defensemen Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg and Steve Smith.

Unlike Fitch, West is an avid hockey fan whose eye for talent extends to the ice. “The one thing the Red Wings have is a lot of very, very good hockey players,” said West, a member of the record-setting 1972 Lakers and now the club’s executive vice president. “Look at last year. I know how important it is to play defense. In professional sports, you can’t get into a scoring contest, especially on the road. . . .

“Look at Chicago. That’s an older team that has maybe the greatest player who ever played the game and who happens to be a great defensive player on top of that, and Scottie Pippen, and he’s a great defensive player. What they’ve got, other teams can’t match.”

No one can match the antics of Rodman, the peroxided, tattooed problem child extraordinaire. He has had some lapses, including a six-game suspension for head-butting a referee, but generally has fit in well. Rodman helps by deflecting the media spotlight; that’s especially welcome to Pippen, who hated the attention focused on him when Jordan retired and he became the Bulls’ go-to guy.

“With strong personalities and great players like Jordan and Pippen, Rodman can say anything he wants, but at the end of the day, they’re better than he is and he knows it,” Reynolds said. “If any team is capable of absorbing a personality like Rodman, it’s this team, with Phil as head coach.

“I don’t think any team ever had a lineup like this. You’re talking three dominant defenders on the same team at the same time. The thing they can do is close you off like turning off a water faucet.”

Larionov also commands attention, but for his superb playmaking and intelligence. He has been a friend and motivational guide to Fedorov, as well as a pivotal figure in Detroit’s puck-possession offense.

“He’s a magnificent player. He has so much charisma on the ice as well as off,” Detroit winger Doug Brown said. “He has won so many big games in his career with a lot of different teams. He makes us a better team.”

That both teams are so deep is rare in leagues diluted by expansion. The NBA added two teams this season and the NHL has added five in the last five seasons, fueling an argument that the Bulls’ and Red Wings’ records merit an asterisk for being accomplished against mediocre competition. However, one of the Bulls’ losses was to the expansion Toronto Raptors and the Red Wings lost once to the fourth-year Senators and once to the fifth-year San Jose Sharks.

West thinks the Bulls have feasted on a talent-thin menu but praised them and wished them luck. “So many factors go into making good teams. Good players is the first one, and the more you expand, the fewer good players there will be on each team,” he said. “You can’t have the same quality.”

Surviving a two-month playoff marathon is the next task for both. The Bulls won the race in 1991, ’92 and ‘93, but the Red Wings haven’t taken the Cup since 1955, when the playoffs were only two rounds. “Both teams have had magnificent seasons. I’ve had a lot of fun watching them on TV,” the Red Wings’ Brown said of the Bulls. “We’ve had a good year and people are talking about our accomplishments, but the bottom line is winning in the playoffs.”

Said Reynolds: “If the Chicago Bulls are healthy, they should win the world championship. If they do win the world championship and 70 games, to not give them credit as one of the greatest teams of all time would be silly.”

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Looking in a Mirror

Similarities between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Bulls.

RED WINGS

* Lead NHL with +138 goal differential

* League’s best home record (35-3-2)

* League’s lowest goals-against average

* Allowed fewest shots by opponents

* Third in scoring

* Top scorer, Sergei Fedorov, endorses Nike

* Lost to Avalanche at Denver this season

* Many European players in starting lineup