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Pacers still reeling from Game 5 stinker
Posted: Thursday May 28, 1998 08:45 PM
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Jordan scored his 29 points on 12-for-20 shooting from the field (AP) |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A stench still lingered around the Indiana Pacers on Thursday, one day after they stunk up the joint in Chicago to fall behind 3-2 in the Eastern Conference finals.
"It would have been different if this was the first game and we had been blown out," Antonio Davis said. "But we got blown out in the fifth game, and that hurts. It hurt everybody."
To say the Pacers had put the loss behind them would be untrue. Clearly, the Bulls have planted the seeds of self-doubt in the heads of the Pacers.
Coach Larry Bird made the team watch a tape of the entire first half of Wednesday night's 106-87 loss, and it was not a pretty picture.
The Pacers did none of the things they needed to do, from deterring Scottie Pippen's relentless drives to the basket to setting the picks Reggie Miller needs to have a clean look on his jump shot.
"To lose the way we did really affects your pride," Rik Smits said. "The way we struggled, that affects confidence. I mean, we missed 18 field goals in a row. That gets to you at a certain point."
Jalen Rose, suspended for Game 5 for leaving the bench during a late altercation in Game 4, wasn't able to watch the game from his hotel room after the staff kicked him out when the rest of the team checked out.
He ended up watching the game on television in a meeting room, and he wasn't ordering up room service as the blowout unfolded.
"I had no appetite," he said.
Each of the Pacers pointed to aggressiveness as the key missing component, and a few of them almost admitted that their confidence could be diminished going into Game 6 Friday night.
Miller was held to six points in the first half (AP) | |
"I look at it from the standpoint that it can't get any worse," said Miller, who also still appeared stunned by the magnitude of Indiana's defeat.
The Pacers went into the game knowing they had a chance to move within one victory of eliminating the two-time defending champions, and Bird was certain his veteran-laden team would rise to the challenge.
That's what made the collective no-show all the more discouraging.
"It was mind-boggling to me," Bird said. "Maybe they were caught up in everything going on around them. It was a big game and I expected them to play harder and more aggressive, but it just wasn't there.
"I don't think they (the Bulls) played any better than they did in any other games, they just didn't get any resistance from us. They looked better because we didn't play," Bird said.
The Pacers' only remaining hope was to somehow freshen the air quickly -- just like they did two months ago following the worst offensive performance in NBA history -- a measly 55-point output against the Spurs that was the lowest point total in the league's 51 years of business.
Indiana followed up that stinker with a 128-point outburst in the next game, and the Pacers haven't lost at home since -- including a perfect 7-0 record in the playoffs.
The Bulls have been especially tough to beat when they have the opportunity to close out a series. Not since 1996, when they had a 3-0 lead in the Finals over Seattle and went on to win in six games, have they blown a chance to close out a series.
In this year's playoffs, they had two of their best overall games in the clinchers over New Jersey and Charlotte.
Last year, they came back from Utah with a 3-2 lead in the Finals and finished off the Jazz in Game 6.
"No one can think we can take this score and that it will be attributable to Friday's game," said Chicago coach Phil Jackson, who gave his team the day off Thursday. "Friday's game will be a different matter. the key is we're going to have to play a good game on the road if we are to get to the next series."
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NBA Finals
