The road to another championship doesn't get any easier for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Now they must face Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals for the second year running.
"It was a hard-fought seven-game series," Jordan said after his Bulls outlasted the Indiana Pacers with a narrow, 88-83 victory to capture the Eastern Conference title. "Utah's back there waiting for us. They've got the home-court advantage this year. It's going to be even tougher."
As the first game against Utah looms tomorrow, the Bulls, seeking their sixth NBA crown in Jordan's last six full seasons and aware that this could be their final season together, headed huffing and puffing into the best-of-seven championship series with just two days to rest and prepare.
The Jazz, who efficiently swept the brash Los Angeles Lakers in four games to win the West, will have had 10 days rest.
For Malone, the Bulls-Pacers series could not have turned out better. "I was rooting for the East final to go seven games because whoever comes out of it has only two or three days to rest," the game's premier power forward and last year's Most Valuable Player said.
"Hopefully, they'll be nice and tender for us."
With nine seconds left in Sunday's game, Jordan looked exhausted, bending over clutching his knees, breathing heavily, his face contorted. Afterwards, he spoke of using the short time off to clear his mind and focus on the next job.
But too much rest can bring rust.
Utah swingman Bryon Russell is impatient to get started. Team-mate Shandon Anderson says the Jazz are tired of playing against one another.
"You have to tone down some things because you don't want to beat your team-mates up," said Anderson. "You don't want to set illegal picks or bowl over your team-mates because someone might get hurt. I can't wait to finally start playing somebody else soon."
Utah coach Jerry Sloan blasted his team for laziness in practice last week. But that may have been more ritual than reality, for Malone and all-time assists leader John Stockton will never let the Jazz be outworked when it counts.
They are the first repeat finals opponent the Bulls have had. The last five times teams met in the finals twice in a row, the previous year's loser won the rematch.
And the Jazz won both meetings of the regular season, which is how they earned the home-court edge that Chicago enjoyed in four of their five previous championship runs. Only in 1993, when the Bulls beat Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns in six games, did they start on the road.
"Having home court is going to definitely be to Utah's advantage," said Jordan, who won his fifth NBA Most Valuable Player award this year.
