It’s Bulls vs. Pacers for Title in East

The Chicago Bulls are back in the Eastern Conference finals.

Michael Jordan scored 33 points and Dennis Rodman had 21 rebounds on his 37th birthday as the two-time defending champions sent the Charlotte Hornets out of the playoffs Wednesday night with an emotional 93-84 victory.

Clinching the second-round series, 4-1, the Bulls advanced to the Eastern finals for the eighth time in 10 years. The only years they missed were in 1993-94 when Jordan was “retired” and again in 1994-95 when he had just returned from baseball.

Chicago will face Indiana beginning Sunday at Chicago.

Jordan scored all 11 of his fourth-quarter points after a run-in with Charlotte’s Glen Rice.

Rice, in a shooting slump most of the series, scored 30 points on 13-of-21 shooting for the Hornets, but it wasn’t enough.

Frustration from a physical game, both underneath and on the perimeter, surfaced in the fourth quarter.

Rice and Jordan went nose-to-nose with 10:09 left after they’d twice collided in front of the Bulls’ bench. Scottie Pippen had to restrain Jordan, Rice was charged with an offensive foul and then a double technical was called on the two stars.

Indiana 99, New York 88--The Pacers are bringing the coach of the year, their bald heads and a deep and dangerous team to the Eastern finals.

Mark Jackson had the first triple-double in team playoff history and Indiana finished off the Knicks, taking an early lead and holding it for almost the entire game to win the second-round series in five games.

“We do not get rattled, we make plays and we do not beat ourselves,” Jackson said. “That’s the way this team was built.”

Next up is the franchise’s first conference finals appearance since 1995 and a chance for Larry Bird to show off his minimalist method of coaching on an even bigger stage.

“We have a whole different attitude,” said Rik Smits, who was with the Pacers when they lost in the conference finals in 1994 and 1995. “This year’s team is a lot more confident. We’re not happy just to be in the conference finals.”

The Pacers enter the next round knowing they have enough experience and depth to be a serious threat to reach the finals. It was all on display against the Knicks as the Pacers got 22 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists from Jackson, 24 points from Reggie Miller, 22 from Smits and plenty of contributions from others.

They did it with their defense too, holding New York without a basket for a six-minute stretch of the fourth quarter as they turned a 73-73 tie into an 87-75 lead.

By the time Patrick Ewing scored for New York to break the spurt with 1:43 left, it was too late for the Knicks.

“We have a little more added on this time,” said Antonio Davis, another veteran of Indiana’s playoff failures. “Instead of a cast of five or six, we have eight or nine guys who can really go out and play.”

Smits made 10 of 15 shots with nine rebounds, the Pacers outrebounded New York, 46-34, and had assists on 23 of their 33 field goals.

Ewing returned from a broken wrist for this series and played adequately at times, but it was clear that he wasn’t himself. Ewing was four for 13 from the field and two for eight from the line, and Allan Houston’s 33 points couldn’t carry the Knicks.

“Their whole team outplayed us,” Ewing said, “but we still feel they’re not a better team than we are.”