Playing the Palace No Trouble for Bulls; Pistons Fall, 113-107

By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

May 26, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — It’s 300 miles from Chicago to here, along a route on which the Pistons hoped the Bulls would drive the confidence of a 2-0 lead into a pothole of precedent.

The Bulls had lost 13 of 15 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, but come Saturday afternoon, Chicago steam-rolled history and the Pistons, holding off a late rally to win, 113-107, to take a 3-0 took advantage in the Eastern Conference finals.

Next off ramp: the NBA finals.

Forty-four teams have been down 0-3 in a best-of-seven series before now. None has come back to win. The Pistons, a prideful group on the verge of being swept and losing the series on their home court, don’t seem to have the horsepower to win.

“We talk about liking our backs against the wall,” Coach Chuck Dally said of his two-time defending champions. “We’re certainly there now. We won two championships on the road (at the Forum and Portland). I’d certainly hate to see it end here.”

Not only did the Bulls, who can wrap up the series Monday afternoon, handle Detroit. They handled Detroit.

They knew the Pistons would try mental traps, much as they would try to force turnovers with a half-court trap.

Neither worked.

“Coming to a place (where) we haven’t been successful, they figured our emotions were shot,” Michael Jordan said after his best game of the series, a 33-point, seven-rebound, seven-assist, five-block afternoon. “But we changed that. Maybe that’s why we got off to such a great start. We came out searching for something in an aggressive manner.”

And when someone suggested Detroit got frustrated after falling behind by 16 points in the first quarter to a quicker, younger, fresher team, Scottie Pippen, the Bulls’ other scoring threat, disagreed.

“I was seeing the Pistons frustrated because they weren’t winning the game,” he said after contributing 26 points and 10 rebounds. “I don’t think quickness won the game. I think we just played a lot harder and a lot smarter than the last time we were in this situation.”

Smarter? “I think we learned that when they throw cheap shots and elbows, we have to let the refs take care of the calls.”

Rough play in an effort to shake Chicago--which lost all four games here in last season’s conference finals--hardly came as a surprise. But, as Pippen said, the Bulls didn’t bite, concentration staying on the game instead of retaliation. Focus, Jordan called it.

The Bulls, who shot 57.5%, had chances to fold, too. They were caught, 34-34, with 5:31 left before halftime. Up by eight points at intermission and 16 again in the third quarter, they were reeled in again in the fourth. The lead was only 96-91 after Bill Laimbeer’s jump shot from the right baseline with 4:11 remaining.

Still down with 2 1/2 minutes left, 101-96, Detroit made two key mistakes, both uncharacteristic.

First, the group that prides itself on being a black-and-blue rebounding team allowed Pippen to get between two players for an offensive rebound on Bill Cartwright’s miss. After a Chicago timeout, Jordan converted Pippen’s work into a short bank shot and a 103-96 edge.

The Pistons got another Laimbeer basket, this time a rebound tip-in. They were still down by only five with two minutes left and seemed primed to move closer when Vinnie Johnson poked the ball from Pippen and gained control to start a two-on-Jordan fast break.

Johnson and Joe Dumars were the attackers. Johnson flipped a pass to Dumars on the right side. A dependable scorer, an experienced player, Dumars, in the worst moment of his three-of-10 game, went to the basket, got in deep and spun and. . . .

And flipped the ball backward over his head, so help him, Harlem Globetrotters.

The shot glanced off the backboard to Jordan. It ended up in Pippen’s hands a few seconds later, and he connected from the right side. End of Piston rally, beginning of mild 6-3 Chicago run that put the game away. “I made a conscious effort not to foul,” Jordan said. “I was at a disadvantage. I had four fouls and didn’t want another. I guess he (Dumars) was off-balance. . . . He threw up anything trying to get the foul.”

One team seemed rattled into mental mistakes at the end, all right. “They stole our playbook,” Piston John Salley said. “Talking junk, talking garbage, their intensity on defense, making sure we got only one shot, keeping people out of the middle, making us beat them with the jump shot. That is what we usually do.”

And it’s also their plan for Monday. “All we can do is go out and play as hard as we can and things will take care of themselves,” Salley said.

But why the optimism?

“I play for the back-to-back champs,” he said.

That’s about all the Pistons have to go on the next couple days. How soon they become the deposed champions might be the only issue remaining.