Hawks Catch Bulls At Opportune Moment

Some may view the loss the Bulls suffered Thursday night at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks as a wakeup call.

But the setback is really more of a reality check.

The Bulls are struggling, and have been for a while. With the best-of-7 NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series resuming here today with Game 3 at the Omni, the Hawks are talking as if they have the Bulls on the ropes.

For the first time in two seasons, there is finger-pointing among the Bulls. Some of it is subtle, as when Michael Jordan says all the Bulls have to take a good look at themselves. Some of it is direct, as when Scottie Pippen says Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley have to get their collective acts together.

“I spoke to the guys,” said an obviously frustrated Pippen. “We can’t just go out there. Guys have to get their minds ready for the playoffs when we leave the shootaround. It’s not about coming to the arena and turning it on.”

Jordan was as frustrated but more diplomatic about the team, which shot an anemic 41 percent from the field in Game 2.

“It was a poor outing from the Chicago Bulls as a whole - not the frontcourt or the backcourt or however you want to look at it,” he said.

The Hawks are kicking back enjoying this because the Bulls might be falling apart at the wrong time - with two games in a building where Atlanta beat the Bulls once and lost just five times this season. One of those five was to the Bulls, but only because Christian Laettner’s shot at the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

The Hawks were confident even before this series began.

“We’re playing our game,” said Atlanta coach Lenny Wilkens. “I thought early in the first series (that Detroit) got us into a walk-type game. We got out of that in the last game against them, and we feel more like we’re playing our style of ball.”

Boy, are they.

Not only has Mookie Blaylock been unconscious from the perimeter - with eight 3-pointers in Game 2 - the Bulls haven’t been able to stop him from running the rest of Atlanta’s offense as well. What killed them Thursday was the Hawks’ screen-and-roll, which led to several easy baskets and 38 points on layups or dunks.

When the Bulls struggled against the Hawks during the regular season, it usually came in stretches in which they couldn’t handle that screen-and-roll.

“A lot of that was confusion - we didn’t really know how to play it once they began to hurt us with that particular play,” Jordan explained. “We have to go back to the drawing board and try to find a way to maintain consistency without having to go through confusion, which makes it even more difficult.”

But Jordan knows there are other difficulties for the Bulls right now.

“We’re experiencing some of the difficulties of trying to repeat a championship,” he said. “Scottie and myself and (coach) Phil (Jackson) and Dennis and Robert (Parish) have experienced it. A lot of the young players haven’t.”

Not surprisingly, Atlanta’s Steve Smith, who scored 27 points in Game 2, doesn’t care what’s troubling the Bulls.

“If the Bulls lose and people say they beat themselves, we’ll take it,” he said. “Just as long as we get the win.”

Smith then stressed, as the Bulls proved Thursday, that winning at home isn’t guaranteed.

“Homecourt advantage really doesn’t make a difference if you don’t defend it,” he said. “We have two games at home now.”

They also have the Bulls’ attention.

“We know we have to win a game down there to get back our homecourt advantage, and I think we’re perfectly capable of doing that,” said Jackson.

And if the Bulls aren’t capable, Pippen has another scenario.

“We’re going to have to come out and play,” he said. “Or we’re going to be on vacation.”