By Phil Taylor

Issue date: May 8, 1995

Michael Jordan is so breathtakingly balletic on a basketball court that it is easy to forget that he is also a predator. Jordan projects a ruthlessness, a sense that there is nothing he enjoys more than moving in for the kill against a wounded opponent. So last Friday it was appropriate that after his brilliant 48-point performance propelled the No. 5-seeded Chicago Bulls to a 108-100 overtime victory over the No. 4-seeded Charlotte Hornets in Game 1 of their best-of-five Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, Jordan compared himself to an animal that enjoys the hunt. "I felt like a shark that smelled blood in the water," he said.

"When Michael has you down, he doesn't just want to keep you down," said Charlotte guard Hersey Hawkins. "He wants to drive a stake through your heart."

But the Hornets' heart isn't easily pierced, as they proved Sunday by bouncing back with a 106-89 win in Game 2. The Hornets had been attacked by a shark and lived to tell about it--for at least two more games, one of which will have been played on Tuesday and the other scheduled for Friday in Chicago.

The problem for the Bulls was that few of them shared Jordan's killer instinct. Chicago won Game 1 despite getting only 27 minutes, three shots and eight points from All-Star forward Scottie Pippen. "Michael bailed us out," said Bull coach Phil Jackson after Jordan had scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. In Game 2 he was almost as masterly, with 32 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and one floating, lefthanded, reverse flip of a layup that was the equal of any of his preretirement highlight-film moves. He had nine fourth-quarter points, but the rest of the Bulls could produce only six in the period, which was also notable for the moment when 5'10" Charlotte guard Michael Adams scored on a key layup, which led to him and 5'3" teammate Muggsy Bogues executing probably the lowest high five in NBA history.

But it was the Charlotte big men, 6'10" center Alonzo Mourning and 6'7", 250-pound power forward Larry Johnson, who were most responsible for sending the series to Chicago all even. The Bulls' most vulnerable area is under the basket, and the Hornets attacked them there in Game 2, with Mourning grabbing 20 rebounds and Johnson scoring 25 points. "We're going with our big lineup, and we just keep pounding it in over and over until something loosens up," says Charlotte coach Allan Bristow. "We'll use Larry at [shooting] guard if we have to."

If they do, it won't be the first wrinkle John Bach, the Charlotte assistant in charge of defense, has thrown at Jordan. Bach was a Chicago assistant during the Bulls' three championship years (1991, '92 and '93), and in practice he would devise schemes designed to stop His Airness. "He'd say, `What've you got for me today, Johnny? I'm going to whip it,' " says Bach.

And in defeat Jordan seemed similarly confident; even his most innocuous comments sounded ominous. "I'm looking forward to it" was all he said about Game 3, and there was a look in his eye that indicated that the shark was still circling.