Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305230135
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Long

ENOUGH TALK: NOW IT'S JUST BULLS VS. KNICKS

Looking for analogies, cliches or just plain fun basketball? Look no further, it's the Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks in Game 1 today at Madison Square Garden. Built up for a year, it comes down to a week. Maybe two.

The Bulls' route to a third straight NBA title runs straight through midtown Manhattan, and the Knicks will try everything to make it as unpleasant a trip as possible.

"Obviously, we have something they want, and we're trying to keep it," Bulls star Michael Jordan said. "I'm pretty sure they're very, very hungry for a championship in New York and the hunger is very strong. But I think the hunger for a third title is very strong on this team, too. It's a matter of what outweighs the other in the course of a seven-game series."

Pretending nothing else, the Knicks built their team with the sole intention of dethroning the Bulls. With the best record in the conference, they earned home-court advantage in this series on the final weekend of the regular season.

Nearly unbeatable at Madison Square Garden this season, where they won a league-best 37 of 41 games and have a current streak of 25 straight victories, the Knicks have struggled some through the first two rounds of the playoffs, taking four games to polish off the Indiana Pacers and five to eliminate the Charlotte Hornets. But if it has made them look vulnerable, they say, it also has made them tougher.

The Bulls, meanwhile, exposed their weaknesses during a regular season in which injuries to every member of the team except B.J. Armstrong and Will Perdue made 10 starting lineups necessary. It also gave way to a stunning new look in the playoffs.

They are 7-0 in the playoffs with sweeps over the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, prompting only one question: Are they tough enough?

The Bulls, once calling themselves underdogs with perfectly straight faces, now say yes.

"Now we've kind of opened our eyes and gotten some of our respect back," Jordan said. "We've totally gotten rid of the 82 games of up-and-down inconsistency that we had in the regular season, and now the focus is on the playoffs and this is a great set-up.

"New York has been the best team in the East all year long, and we're playing the best basketball right now in the playoffs, so it's a great matchup."

Indeed, the matchups, though far from the classic variety, will be fascinating. Will Bill Cartwright and his three backups at center be able to hold off indomitable Patrick Ewing? Will John Starks, the cocky-but-talented young Knicks guard, be able to put even a dent in the armor of Jordan? And what will result from the clash that occurs at power forward in Horace Grant against his former Bulls mentor, Charles Oakley?

"Our matchup situation is going to be very difficult," said Bulls coach Phil Jackson, who will have the burden of juggling his substitutions to meet the challenge of a team that has 11 players averaging 13 or more minutes in the playoffs. "It's important for guys to know what their roles are."

Defensively, the Bulls' attention will be focused most heavily on Starks, averaging 17 points and seven assists in the playoffs.

"Patrick is going to get his 30 points," Jackson said of Ewing. "He's that kind of a player. But Starks is different. He's a streaky player, and if you're not attentive to him, he'll hit 3-pointers and make steals and get runout layups. That's the kind of guy we really have to concentrate on.

"We'll probably put a combination of people on him. Michael will play him a little bit and B.J. will play him a little bit and we'll have people come off the bench to play him."

The keys to the game? Take your pick:

"Rebounding and containing Ewing," Jordan said.

"Establish our defense," Cartwright said.

"We have to do a good job of pushing the ball up the court," Scottie Pippen said.

"Don't let the bench players like [Anthony] Mason and [Rolando] Blackman beat us," Grant said.

"Control tempo," Jackson said.

One major factor is the officiating. More specifically, how close will the officials call the Knicks' physical style of play?

The Bulls say, either way, they will be prepared to take some abuse.

"We're going to go to the basket to try to get layups," Jackson said. "When you try to do that against New York, you do put your life in jeopardy, but you still have to go because you have to make the referees make calls and not bail out and try to escape the call."

Perhaps the player it will affect most is Pippen, who possesses one of the best open-court games in the league.

"The mental aspect we have to have," Pippen said, "is to just go in and take the blows, take whatever hard fouls they give you, and just pick yourself up off the floor and shake it off."

The Knicks held a 3-1 advantage in the regular season, blowing out the Bulls by 37 points in New York after a long western road swing by the defending champions; losing by 12 on Christmas Day; defeating the Jordan-less Bulls at the Stadium on Feb. 12; and winning by five on the last day of the regular season.

"We feel this is a chance to say, `Hey, what happened during the regular season was just the regular season,' " Jordan said. "This is a whole different thing."

It also is a chance, once and for all, to end the debate that has dominated discussion since last season.

"The hype has been there, and it's very evident these are the two best teams in the East," Jordan said. "The stage is set."

Said Grant, "This is what they were wishing for, and it's the same thing we're wishing for."

"There has been enough talk," Jackson said. "Enough anticipation. Now it's time it get it done."