CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bulls labled it a wakeup call. It looked more like a hellacious scare.
The defending NBA champions, turned into mere mortals in being pushed to seven games by the New York Knicks in their Eastern Conference semifinal, finally rediscovered some of that old magic.
Michael Jordan scored a series-high 42 points Sunday, Scottie Pippen registered a triple double and the Bulls used a late third-quarter surge to finally shed themselves of the punishing Knicks, 110-81.
'This is by far the most challenging series we've been in since two years ago against Detroit when we went seven games and lost,' Jordan said. 'We did kind of walk into this series thinking it very well possibly could be a sweep.'
The defending NBA champions, surpassing the 100-point mark for the first time since eliminating Miami in the first round, open the Eastern Conference finals at home against Cleveland on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers eliminated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of their series.
'Maybe that's enough to wake us up and get us back to playing that type of basketball,' Jordan said, 'having that hunger that we had last year.'
The Bulls had won only one other Game 7, in 1974 against Detroit in the first round. The Knicks, who were attempting to advance past the second round for the first time since they won the championship in 1972- 73, made the Bulls earn it every step of the way after coming out and stealing Game 1 at Chicago Stadium.
'I'm proud of the way that we've come through the playoffs,' Knicks Coach Pat Riley said. 'We can learn from this and grow from this. ... We'll be back.'
Pippen, slowed by a sprained ankle and New York's Xavier McDaniel throughout the series, finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his second career playoff triple double. Horace Grant also had his best game of the series for the Bulls with 14 points, four blocks and four steals. The Chicago reserves, especially B.J. Armstrong, made key contributions.
Chicago shot above 50 percent for the first time this series (58.1 percent) and held the Knicks to 37.8 percent shooting.
'Our defensive effort in the second half rose to a higher level,' Bulls Coach Phil Jackson said. 'This was a good test for us. They put us to the fire.'
Patrick Ewing led the Knicks with 22 points but was held to 2 in the final quarter. John Starks added 18.
'My ankle was fine the whole game,' said Ewing, who sprained an ankle in Game 6. 'Chicago just outplayed us.'
Chicago led by 5 at halftime, and New York cut that to 60-57 early in third quarter on a Ewing jumper. But the Bulls answered with a 10-2 run, capped by an Armstrong 3-pointer, to match their largest lead to that point at 70-59. Jordan kept the run going with great hustle down the court to swipe away McDaniel's breakaway layup attempt.
'They just became more aggressive defensively,' Riley said. 'What we relegated ourselves to was a perimeter team. We could not get into any gaps, we could not drive around anybody. Their defense just picked up big time, the kind of defense I have not seen from them this series to be quite frank. Maybe it took them getting their backs to the wall to come with it, and I'm sure they'll go on from here.'
Starks appeared to stop the momentum when he converted a 3-point play to make it 70-62 with 3:48 left in the third, but Jordan responded with a reverse layup along the baseline and Stacey King had a 3-point play to build the advantage to 15.
'We kind of sniffed the kill a little bit, and our defense opened up things,' Jordan said. 'The next thing you know our offense was working.'
'We were able to convert when they made a mistake,' Armstrong said. 'When they missed we were able to run out and get some fastbreaks. There were key things out there that weren't anything special, just solid basketball for that five-minute stretch.'
Chicago led 79-64 after three and Ewing hit a jumper to start the fourth, but the Knicks had made their final stand. Jordan followed with a pair of free throws, Pippen a layup and Jordan a layin for his 40th point and an 85-66 lead. New York, for the first time in the series, could not come back.
And for the first time in the series, the Bulls managed to push the tempo of the game to their liking. Jordan had 18 points in the first quarter and Chicago shot nearly 59 percent from the field but led just 30-25.
The Bulls increased the margin to 11 late in the second quarter, and the Knicks again fought back in. Mark Jackson drove the lane for a layup to start an 8-2 spurt to close out the half, cutting the deficit to 56- 51.
The 56 points marked the best first-half showing by either of the teams this series. Jordan, driving inside from the opening possession, had 29 points by the intermission.
'His first six minutes of basketball showed me we probably should have played the game yesterday,' Riley said. 'He had one day too much rest. He was on it. There are certain players like that that have the ability to go above and beyond.'
And so the Bulls will go beyond the Knicks after all.
