NBA NOTES

Reggie Miller never got open enough to start yapping. Mark Jackson didn’t do anything close to meriting a shimmy-shake. And Chris Mullin--was he even playing?

The Indiana Pacers were broken down, bottled up and just plain beaten in what might have been one of the Chicago Bulls’ best defensive efforts ever. Now comes the tricky part: figuring out how to do it again.

It certainly is going to be tough to top. From Scottie Pippen wrapping up Jackson to Ron Harper nipping at Miller’s heels, the five-time NBA champions had an answer for everything in Indiana’s offense in an 85-79 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Pacers have to get some scoring from Mullin and center Rik Smits. Mullin, who averaged 11 points in the conference semifinals, took only four shots and finished with two points. He didn’t even play in the fourth quarter.